Multicolor hybrid lasers are expected to reshape the new pattern of integrated p

How to integrate the advantages of a desk laser as large as the whole room into a semiconductor chip the size of a nail?

To meet this challenge, the research team of the University of Rochester in the United States has created the first multi-color integrated laser. The researchers said that this technology "is likely to reshape the pattern of integrated photonics", which will pave the way for the new application of integrated semiconductor lasers in light detection and ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing, and is also expected to promote the progress of microwave photonics, atomic physics and augmented reality/virtual reality technology. The research results were recently published in the journal Nature Communication.

The structure diagram of a new hybrid integrated laser has "the potential to reshape the integrated photonics pattern".

Integrated semiconductor lasers have always been the core of integrated photonics, and have promoted many advances in information technology and basic science in the past decades. The researchers said that despite these impressive achievements, the current integrated lasers still lack key functions. The lack of fast reconfiguration and narrow spectral window have become the main bottlenecks hindering applications.

The researchers said they overcame these challenges by creating a new integrated semiconductor laser based on the Purkels effect. The laser is integrated with the lithium niobate platform on the insulator, which can emit highly coherent light of telecommunication wavelength, allowing laser frequency tuning at a record speed, and is the first narrow linewidth laser with fast configurability in the visible light band.

The new hybrid integrated laser can achieve fast frequency chirp, which is almost priceless in LiDAR sensor systems. The system measures distance by recording the time between short pulse emission and reflected light reception. The new technology also overcomes the frequency conversion ability limited by the spectral bandwidth of traditional integrated semiconductor lasers, which will "significantly ease" the difficulty of developing new wavelength lasers.

The new technology has narrow wavelength and fast reconfigurability, providing a "complete on-chip laser solution" to detect and manipulate atoms and ions in atomic physics, and is conducive to real/virtual reality and other short wavelength applications.

Related links://phys.org/news/2022-10-laser-reshape-landscape-photonics.html

Source: Guangxingtianxia