Report
Teaser, summary, work performed and final results
Periodic Reporting for period 2 - RENOS (Rare earth doped novel on-chip sources)
Teaser
What is the problem being address?In RENOS we want to develop compact, low cost, power efficient, tunable lasers and frequency combs spanning large bandwidths, exhibiting excellent output beam characteristics, such as the ones achieved in solid-state sources, and expanding the...
Summary
What is the problem being address?
In RENOS we want to develop compact, low cost, power efficient, tunable lasers and frequency combs spanning large bandwidths, exhibiting excellent output beam characteristics, such as the ones achieved in solid-state sources, and expanding the wavelength ranges of typical solid-state materials. Such devices will greatly benefit application fields such as optical sensing, spectroscopy, metrology and telecommunications.
Why is it important for society?
In our digital society, the demand for bandwidth is ever increasing. Furthermore, we are living in an aging society. A paradigm change from curing to prevention will permit ensuring a good quality of life of the population while maintaining a sustainable healthcare system. Compact and energy efficient on-chip laser sources that can provide a much broader range of frequencies spanning from the visible to the mid-IR will represent a major milestone. Such lasers can find applications in communications, datacoms but also in spectroscopy, metrology and optical sensing.
What are the overall objectives?
In RENOS, we study the generation of novel frequencies and frequency combs by stimulated Raman scattering and four-wave mixing in high-contrast waveguides in rare-earth-doped potassium double tungstates materials (RE:KYW) by exploiting both their excellent optical gain properties as well as their large non-linear index of refraction. Different waveguide structures and devices are investigated as well as their integration with passive integrated photonic platforms to enable the development of complex devices with the aforementioned functionalities.
Work performed
During the first reporting period, the efforts have been focused on achieving low-loss high refractive index contrast waveguides in KY(WO4)2 (KYW) for the realization of microring/microdisk resonators with the correct dispersion as well as their integration on a SiO2 substrate to develop the KYW-on-insulator platform , in which realize the active devices in the second part of the project. Three main types of waveguides have been investigated:
1. High refractive index waveguides in KYW by bonding followed by lapping and polishing.
2. High refractive index waveguides in KYW by swift carbon ion implantation.
3. Pedestal waveguides and microdisk devices.
Final results
The results achieved in RENOS advance the state-of-the-art in high-contrast waveguides in KYW. Thin layers of KYW can now be produced with excellent planarity. We understand how to realize step-index waveguides in KYW using swift-ion irradiation. The flexibility given by the preferential etching achieved after irradiation, will permit to develop devices with the desired geometry. The next steps in the project will be the non-linear characterization of the different waveguide structures and the development of lasers, and efficient Raman amplifiers and frequency combs based on this technology.