Project

An ultra-short pulsed laser based on an electrically pumped hybrid nonlinear Gallium Phosphide platform

Code
3F023019
Duration
01 November 2019 → 01 May 2023
Funding
Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO)
Promotor
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Lasers and quantum electronics
    • Nonlineair optics and spectroscopy
    • Photonics, optoelectronics and optical communications
  • Engineering and technology
    • Nanophotonics
Keywords
laser
 
Project description

The development of optical frequency combs has revolutionized many research fields including the field of precision spectroscopy and metrology. However it also has the potential for real-life applications such as datacom, telecom and sensing. For this reason a large drive in the research community has been the development of chip scale comb sources. Currently there have been a number of demonstrations which involve the use of highly nonlinear interactions in microresonators. Although they have shown impressive progress, the conversion efficiency remains rather poor. At the same time people from the laser community have integrated mode-locked lasers to generate these combs. They have the advantage that they have a high conversion efficiency and allow for electrical pumping. However they tend to be unable to produce ultra-short pulses. Here we will use elements from both these approaches to make new types of integrated lasers that can produce ultrashort pulses. The very fast dynamics in the laser cavity based on the nonlinear interactions will allow for the short pulses, while the amplifiers will allow for electrical pumping. To validate the quality of the lasers, we will bring them to the test in a high speed telecom experiment where the different lines of the comb laser will be imprinted with data.