US 9,270,078 B2 · Tunable SOI laser

Abstract

A wavelength tunable silicon-on-insulator (SOI) laser comprising: a laser cavity including: a semiconductor gain medium having a front end and a back end, wherein a mirror of the laser cavity is located at the back end of the semiconductor gain medium; and a phase-tunable waveguide platform coupled to the front end of the semiconductor gain medium, the phase-tunable waveguide platform comprising: a first resonator and a second resonator; at least one resonator being a phase-tunable resonator; wherein the first resonator is any one of: an MMI device including a pair of reflective surfaces defining a resonator cavity therebetween such that the device is configured to act as a Fabry-Perot filter; a ring resonator; or a waveguide Fabry-Perot filter; and wherein the second resonator is any one of: an MMI device including a pair of reflective surfaces defining a resonator cavity therebetween such that the device is configured to act as a Fabry-Perot filter; a ring resonator; or a waveguide Fabry-Perot filter.

Claims25

Dependent claims

A wavelength tunable silicon-on-insulator (SOI) laser comprising:

a laser cavity including:
a semiconductor gain medium having a front end and a back end;
and
a phase-tunable waveguide platform coupled to the front end of the semiconductor gain medium, the phase-tunable waveguide platform comprising:
a first ring resonator having a first free spectral range (FSR);
a second ring resonator having a second FSR different to the first FSR, the second ring resonator being coupled to the first ring resonator;
wherein, at least one of the ring resonators is a phase-tunable ring resonator
wherein each of the first ring resonator and the second ring resonator comprises a first half-ring and a second half-ring, the first half-ring coupled to the second half-ring;
and
wherein the laser cavity further comprises a multimode interference (MMI) coupler to couple light into the first ring resonator, the MMI also forms an optical couple between the first half-ring of the first ring resonator and the second half-ring of the first ring resonator.

7 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Tunable SOI laser

Life of this patent

Tunable SOI laser

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims25