Wafer-scale manufacturing of ultra-broadband, high-power erbium-doped integrated lasers

Abstract

Abstract Erbium (Er) is an attractive gain medium for amplifiers and lasers due to its long excited-state lifetime, low noise and nonlinearity, and temperature stability. Recently developed ultra-low-loss Si 3 N 4 photonic integrated circuits combined with Er ion implantation have enabled high-performance on-chip Er lasers, but manufacturing scalability has been limited by the high 2 MeV implantation required for tightly confined 700-nm-thick waveguides. Here we demonstrate the first fully wafer-scale, foundry-compatible Er-doped Si 3 N 4 tunable lasers by using 200-nm-thick waveguides, reducing implantation energy to below 500 keV and enabling usage of 300-mm industrial implanters. The low-confinement design also improves laser performance and output power. We achieve 91 nm tuning across the C- and L-bands, 47.6 mW fiber-coupled output power, and a 78.5 Hz intrinsic linewidth. Devices operate up to 125 ∘ C and show less than 15 MHz drift over 6 hours, enabling scalable  high-performance Er-doped lasers for integrated photonics.