Abstract
Rapid progress in photonics has led to an explosion of integrated devices that promise to deliver the same performance as table-top technology at the nanoscale, heralding the next generation of optical communications, sensing and metrology, and quantum technologies. However, the challenge of co-integrating the multiple components of high-performance laser systems has left application of these nanoscale devices thwarted by bulky laser sources that are orders of magnitude larger than the devices themselves. Here we show that the two main components for high-performance lasers—noise reduction and isolation—can be sourced simultaneously from a single, passive, CMOS-compatible nanophotonic device, eliminating the need to combine incompatible technologies. To realize this, we take advantage of both the long photon lifetime and the non-reciprocal Kerr nonlinearity of a high-quality-factor silicon nitride ring resonator to self-injection lock a semiconductor laser chip while also providing isolation. We also identify a previously unappreciated power regime limitation of current on-chip laser architectures, which our system overcomes. Using our device, which we term a unified laser stabilizer, we demonstrate an on-chip integrated laser system with built-in isolation and noise reduction that operates with turnkey reliability. This approach departs from efforts to directly miniaturize and integrate traditional laser system components and serves to bridge the gap to fully integrated optical technologies.
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All data are available from the corresponding authors on reasonable request.
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Acknowledgements
A.W. acknowledges the Herb and Jane Dwight Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) and the NTT Research Fellowship. G.H.A. acknowledges support from STMicroelectronics Stanford Graduate Fellowship (SGF) and Kwanjeong Educational Foundation. Authors from Stanford University and UCSB acknowledge funding support from DARPA under the LUMOS programme. Authors from University of Washington acknowledge funding support from NSF under NSF-QII-TAQS-1936100. Part of this work was performed at the Stanford Nano Shared Facilities (SNSF)/Stanford Nanofabrication Facility (SNF), supported by the National Science Foundation under award ECCS-2026822.
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A.D.W., G.H.A., and K.V.G. conceived of the project. A.D.W., G.H.A., R.L., and K.V.G. performed the experiments. G.H.A. developed the silicon-nitride fabrication process and fabricated the devices with assistance from A.S. and A.M. J.G., T.J.M., L.C. and J.E.B. provided the semiconductor laser chip and experimental guidance. J.V. supervised the project. All authors contributed to data analysis and writing of the paper.
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A.D.W., G.H.A., K.V.G. and J.V. have filed a patent application for the ULS laser architecture (PCT/US2023/032287). The other authors declare no competing interests.
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Nature Photonics thanks Pascal Del’Haye and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.
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White, A.D., Ahn, G.H., Luhtaru, R. et al. Unified laser stabilization and isolation on a silicon chip. Nat. Photon. 18, 1305–1311 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01539-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-024-01539-3
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