Erbium-doped spiral amplifiers with 20 dB gain on a silicon chip

S. A. Vázquez-Córdova; E. H. Bernhardi; K. Wörhoff; S. M. García-Blanco; M. Pollnau

doi:10.1117/12.2052298

1 May 2014 Erbium-doped spiral amplifiers with 20 dB gain on a silicon chip

S. A. Vázquez-Córdova, E. H. Bernhardi, K. Wörhoff, S. M. García-Blanco, M. Pollnau

Proceedings Volume 9133, Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits IV; 913308 (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2052298
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2014, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

We report the fabrication and optical characterization of long, spiral-shaped erbium-doped aluminum oxide (Al₂O₃:Er³⁺) channel waveguides for achieving high overall signal amplification on a small footprint. Al₂O₃:Er³⁺ films with Er³⁺ concentrations in the range between 0.44−3.1×10²⁰ cm^-3 were deposited by reactive co-sputtering onto standard, thermally oxidized silicon substrates. Spiral-shaped waveguides were designed and structured into the films by chlorinebased reactive ion etching. In the current design, each spiral waveguide occupies an area of 1 cm². Typical background propagation losses near 1500 nm are (0.2±0.1) dB/cm. A commercially available, pigtailed diode laser at 976 nm was employed as the pump source. The erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers were characterized in the small-signal-gain regime at the peak-gain wavelength (λ = 1532 nm) of Al₂O₃:Er³⁺. A maximum of 20 dB of internal net gain was measured for a 24.5-cm-long spiral waveguide with an Er³⁺ concentration of 0.95×10²⁰ cm^-3. Similar results were obtained for a shorter spiral with an Er³⁺ concentration about twice as high. Samples with lower concentration exhibited lower gain because of insufficient pump absorption, while samples with higher concentration showed less gain because of migration-accelerated energy transfer up-conversion and, more importantly, a fast quenching process.

Citation Download Citation

S. A. Vázquez-Córdova, E. H. Bernhardi, K. Wörhoff, S. M. García-Blanco, and M. Pollnau "Erbium-doped spiral amplifiers with 20 dB gain on a silicon chip", Proc. SPIE 9133, Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits IV, 913308 (1 May 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2052298

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