Fully Integrated Tunable III-V/Si Laser With On-Chip SOA

Silicon-photonics based high volume manufacturable lasers are playing an increasingly important role in optical communication and sensing due to their low-cost, high performance, and seamless integration with other silicon photonics components. Here we demonstrate a silicon-photonics based widely tunable laser with integrated semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) and wavelength reference on a high-volume, 300-mm III-V/Si integration platform. The laser shows a tuning range >50 nm with side-mode suppression ratio >55 dB, Lorentzian linewidth <30 kHz, and relative intensity noise (RIN) <−150 dB/Hz across the entire tuning range. We also demonstrate an active control of the laser. When locked to an external wavelength reference, the laser shows a frequency error <1 GHz against changes to the chip temperature. Amplified by an SOA, the on-chip optical power exceeds 17 dBm. Such tunable lasers can be integrated with other silicon-based photonic components including high-speed modulators and detectors for a variety of applications, ranging from optical communication to sensing.