Silicon photonics (SiP) has evolved into a mature platform for cost-effective low power
compact integrated photonic microsystems for many applications. There is a looming
capacity crunch for telecommunications infrastructure to overcome the data-hungry future,
driven by streaming and the exponential increase in data traffic from consumer-driven
products. To increase data capacity, researchers are now looking at the wavelength window
of the thulium-doped fiber amplifier (TDFA), centered near 2 µm as an attractive new
transmission window for optical communications, motivated by the demonstrations of low loss, low nonlinearity, and high bandwidth transmission. Large-scale implementation of
SiP telecommunication infrastructure will require light sources (lasers) and amplifiers to
generate signals and boost transmitted and/or received signals, respectively. Silicon (Si)
and silicon nitride (Si3N4) have become the leading photonic integrated circuit (PIC)
material platforms, due to their low-cost and wafer-scale production of high-performance
circuits. Silicon does however have a number of limitations as a photonic material,
including that it is not an ideal light-emitting/amplifying material. This proposed research
pertains to the fabrication of on-chip silicon and silicon nitride lasers and amplifiers to be
used in a newly accessible optical communications window of the TDFA band, which is a
significant step towards compact PICs for the telecommunication networks. Tellurium
oxide (TeO2) is an interesting host material due to its large linear and non-linear refractive
indices, low material losses and large rare-earth dopant solubility showing good
performance for compact low-loss waveguides and on-chip light sources and amplifiers.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of silicon photonics in the context of particularly rare
earth lasers and amplifiers, operating at extended wavelengths enabled by the Thulium
doped fiber amplifier. Chapter 2 presents a theoretical performance of waveguides and
microresonators as the efficient structure for laser and amplifiers applications designed for
optimized use in Erbium and Thulium doped fiber amplifier wavelength bands. Then
spectroscopic study thulium (Tm3+) has been studied as the rare earth element for Thulium
doped fiber amplifier wavelength bands. Chapter 3 presents an experimental study of
TeO2:Tm3+ coated Si3N4 waveguide amplifiers with internal net gains of up to 15 dB total
in a 5-cm long spiral waveguide. Chapter 4 provides a study of TeO2:Tm3+
-coated Si3N4 waveguide lasers with up to 16 mW double-sided on-chip output power. Chapter 5 presents an experimental study of low loss and high-quality factor silicon microring resonators coated with TeO2 for active, passive, and nonlinear applications. Chapter 6 represents the first demonstration of an integrated rare-earth silicon laser, with high performance, including single-mode emission, a lasing threshold of 4 mW, and bidirectional on-chip output powers of around 1 mW. Further results with a different design are presented
showing lasers with more than 2 mW of double-sided on-chip output power, threshold
pump powers of < 1 mW and lasing at wavelengths over a range of > 100 nm. Importantly,
a simple, low-cost design was used which is compatible with silicon photonics foundry
processes and enables wafer scale integration of such lasers in SiP PICs using robust
materials. Chapter 7 summarizes the thesis and provides paths for future work. / Dissertation / Doctor of Engineering (DEng)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/27404 |
| Date | January 2022 |
| Creators | Miarabbas Kiani, Khadijeh |
| Contributors | D. B. Bradley, Jonathon, P. Knights, Andrew, Engineering Physics |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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