Design of a 80-nm tunable hybrid III/V-on-silicon laser

We present the concept and design of a hybrid integrated widely tunable III-V-on-silicon ring laser with 80 nm tuning range by means of theoretical investigation. Laser spontaneous emission is provided by two gain chips, one for the C band and the other for the L band. Gain chip sections are duplexed into the silicon photonic passive cavity using a lattice filter. Wavelength tunability is proposed using the Vernier effect between two ring resonators incorporated in the silicon photonic cavity. We present numerical results of modeled laser cavity using a time-domain circuit simulator optimizing the choice of the output mirror reflectivity. The simulated performance shows a waveguide output power up to 65 mW and a high SMSR (> 45 dB) over the entire wavelength range. Linewidth calculations show feasibility for high-order modulation formats.