Titanium:sapphire-on-insulator integrated lasers and amplifiers

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Yang, Joshua; Van Gasse, Kasper; Lukin, Daniil M.; Guidry, Melissa A.; Ahn, Geun Ho; White, Alexander D.; Vuckovic, Jelena
• 署名单位: Stanford University; Interuniversity Microelectronics Centre; Ghent University
• 刊物名称: Nature
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0028-5352
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07457-2
• 发表日期: 2024-06-27
• 关键词: photonic integration; amplification; excitation; dispersion; electrons; DESIGN; POWER

摘要

Titanium:sapphire (Ti:sapphire) lasers have been essential for advancing fundamental research and technological applications, including the development of the optical frequency comb1, two-photon microscopy2 and experimental quantum optics3,4. Ti:sapphire lasers are unmatched in bandwidth and tuning range, yet their use is restricted because of their large size, cost and need for high optical pump powers5. Here we demonstrate a monocrystalline titanium:sapphire-on-insulator (Ti:SaOI) photonics platform that enables dramatic miniaturization, cost reduction and scalability of Ti:sapphire technology. First, through the fabrication of low-loss whispering-gallery-mode resonators, we realize a Ti:sapphire laser operating with an ultralow, sub-milliwatt lasing threshold. Then, through orders-of-magnitude improvement in mode confinement in Ti:SaOI waveguides, we realize an integrated solid-state (that is, non-semiconductor) optical amplifier operating below 1 mu m. We demonstrate unprecedented distortion-free amplification of picosecond pulses to peak powers reaching 1.0 kW. Finally, we demonstrate a tunable integrated Ti:sapphire laser, which can be pumped with low-cost, miniature, off-the-shelf green laser diodes. This opens the doors to new modalities of Ti:sapphire lasers, such as massively scalable Ti:sapphire laser-array systems for several applications. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we use a Ti:SaOI laser array as the sole optical control for a cavity quantum electrodynamics experiment with artificial atoms in silicon carbide6. This work is a key step towards the democratization of Ti:sapphire technology through a three-orders-of-magnitude reduction in cost and footprint and introduces solid-state broadband amplification of sub-micron wavelength light. A photonic platform enables miniaturization and scalability of titanium:sapphire photonic technology, reducing footprint and cost by three orders of magnitude.