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GaAs VCSEL integration on SiN waveguide circuits

Research Area: Integrated lasers and LEDs , Heterogeneous integration technology for silicon photonics , Silicon photonics for telecom, datacom and interconnect , Photonic integrated circuits for the visible/near IR , Silicon photonics for lab-on-chip spectroscopy

Main Researcher: Sulakshna Kumari

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) is a promising platform for integrated photonics applications in the visible and near IR spectrum due to its compatibility with the standard complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication technology. Integrating a coherent light source on such a platform enables many applications. GaAs-based VCSELs are close to being the “perfect” laser: they are very compact, have very low power consumption, single mode behaviour, are very cheap and are realized with very mature production technology. These lasers are the perfect choice for laser emission in the visible/Near IR (covering 0.65–1.3 μm) range The integration of these sources on a SiN platform finds applications in short-reach datalinks and in spectroscopy. The basic idea of this project is to fabricate an integrated VCSEL in which a half GaAs VCSEL is integrated on a SiN HCG mirror, which provides several advantages over DBRs such as a substantial thickness reduction of the device, high polarization sensitivity, large fabrication tolerance and the suppression of higher order transverse modes.

Field profile of the resonant mode of the structure.
Field profile of the resonant mode of the structure.

These HCG mirrors can also be used as a movable mirror through electrostatic actuation. Hence, continuous wavelength tuning can be achieved. The main goal of this project is to marry GaAs VCSELs with Silicon Nitride photonics through heterogeneous integration by means of BCB bonding. This work is carried out through collaboration with Chalmers University (prof. A. Larsson).

Schematic drawing of the integrated tunable GaAs VCSEL
Schematic drawing of the integrated tunable GaAs VCSEL

Other people involved:

Publications

    International Journals

  1. J. Goyvaerts, A. Grabowski, J. Gustavssson, S. Kumari, A. Stassen, R. Baets, A. Larsson, G. Roelkens, Enabling VCSEL-on-silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits with micro-transfer-printing, Optica, 8(12), p.1573-1580 doi:https://doi.org/10.1364/OPTICA.441636 (2021)  Download this Publication (20.5MB).
  2. S. Kumari, E. P. Haglund, J. Gustavsson, A. Larsson, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, Vertical-cavity silicon-integrated laser with in-plane waveguide emission at 850 nm, Lasers & Photonics Reviews, 12(2), p.1700206 doi:10.1002/lpor.201700206 (2018).
  3. S. Kumari, J. S. Gustavsson, E. P. Haglund, J. Bengtsson, A. Larsson, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, Design of an 845 nm GaAs vertical-cavity silicon integrated laser with an intra-cavity grating for coupling to a SiN waveguide circuit , IEEE Photonics Journal, 9(4), p.1504109 doi:10.1109/jphot.2017.2717380 (2017)  Download this Publication (1.2MB).
  4. E. P. Haglund, S. Kumari, P. Westbergh, J. Gustavsson, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, A.Larsson, 20 Gb/s modulation of silicon-integrated short-wavelength hybrid-cavity VCSELs, Photonics Technology Letters, 28(8), p.856-858 doi:10.1109/lpt.2016.2514699 (2016)  Download this Publication (828KB).
  5. E.P. Haglund, S. Kumari, P. Westbergh, J. Gustavsson, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, A. Larsson, Silicon-integrated short-wavelength hybrid-cavity VCSEL, Optics Express, 23(26), p.33634-33640 doi:10.1364/oe.23.033634 (2015)  Download this Publication (5.4MB).
      International Conferences

    1. H. Li, G. Roelkens, Grating coupler design for VCSELs heterogeneously integrated on silicon nitride, accepted for publication in IEEE Silicon Photonics Conference 2025,  (to be published).
    2. J. Zhang, L. Bogaert, M. Billet, D. Wang, B. Pan, S. Qin, E. Soltanian, S. Cuyvers, D. Maes, T. Vanackere, T. Vandekerckhove, S. Poelman, M. Kiewiet, I. Luntadila Lufungula, X. Guo, H. Li, J. De Witte, G. Lepage, P. Verheyen, J. Van Campenhout, B. Kuyken, G. Morthier, D. Van Thourhout, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, Photonic integrated circuits realized using micro-transfer printing, PIERS (invited), (2023).
    3. J. Goyvaerts, S. Kumari, S. Uvin, J. Zhang, R. Baets, A. Gocalinska, E. Pelucchi, B. Corbett, G. Roelkens, Transfer-print integration of GaAs p-i-n photodiodes onto silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits, Annual Conference of the IEEE Photonics Society, Canada, p.1-2 doi:10.1109/IPC47351.2020.9252495 (2020)  Download this Publication (489KB).
    4. J. Gustavsson, E. Haglund, M. Ahmed, A. Larsson, J. Goyvaerts, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, M. Rensing, P. O'Brien, 5 mW single mode and polarization stable 850-nm VCSEL for silicon photonics integration, European VCSEL Day, Belgium, (2019).
    5. E.P. Haglund, S. Kumari, J. Goyvaerts, J.S. Gustavsson, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, A. Larsson, Vertical-Cavity Silicon-Integrated Lasers by Bonding and Transfer Printing, IEEE International Semiconductor Laser Conference (ISLC), United States, p.241-242 doi:10.1109/ISLC.2018.8516256 (2018).
    6. J.S. Gustavsson, S. Kumari, E.P. Haglund, J. Bengtsson, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, A. Larsson, Silicon-Integrated Hybrid-Vertical-Cavity Lasers for Life Science Applications, 30th Annual conference of the IEEE Photonics Society (IPC) (invited), doi:10.1109/ipcon.2017.8116207 (2017)  Download this Publication (479KB).
    7. G. Roelkens, E. P. Haglund, S. Kumari, E. Haglund, J. S. Gustavsson, R. Baets, A. Larsson, 850 nm hybrid vertical cavity laser integration for on-chip silicon photonics light sources, Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition (OFC) (invited), United States, p.W3E.6 doi:10.1364/ofc.2017.w3e.6 (2017)  Download this Publication (16.3MB).
    8. E. P. Haglund, S. Kumari, J. S. Gustavsson, E. Haglund, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, A. Larsson, Hybrid vertical-cavity laser integration on silicon, SPIE Photonics West , United States (invited), United States, p.101220H doi:10.1117/12.2256983 (2017)  Download this Publication (3.7MB).
    9. S. Kumari, E. P. Haglund, J. S. Gustavsson, A. Larsson, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, Design of an intra-cavity SiN grating for integrated 850nm VCSELs, Proceedings of the Annual Symposium of the IEEE Photonics Benelux Chapter, Belgium, (2016), (2016)  Download this Publication (238KB).
    10. Z. Wang, M. Pantouvaki, G. Morthier, C. Merckling, J. Van Campenhout, D. Van Thourhout, G. Roelkens, Heterogeneous Integration of InP Devices on Silicon, the 28th International Conference on Indium Phosphide and Related Materials (IPRM) (invited), Japan, p.paper ThD1-1 (2016)  Download this Publication (379KB).
    11. E. P. Haglund, S. Kumari, J. Gustavsson, P. Westbergh, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, A.Larsson, Dynamic Properties of Silicon Integrated Short Wavelength Hybrid Cavity VCSEL, SPIE Photonics West , United States, 9766, p.976607 doi:10.1117/12.2207301 (2016)  Download this Publication (4.9MB).
    12. S. Kumari, Johan Gustavsson, R. Wang, Emanual Haglund , Petter Westbergh, D. Sanchez, Eric Haglund, Asa Haglund, Jorgen. Bengtsson, N. Le Thomas, G. Roelkens, Anders Larsson, R. Baets, Integration of GaAs-based VCSEL array on SiN platform with HCG reflectors for WDM applications, SPIE Photonics West , United States, doi:10.1117/12.2077090 (2015)  Download this Publication (501KB).

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