High-efficiency mid-infrared InGaAs/InP arrayed waveguide gratings

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits and mid-infrared quantum cascade lasers have attracted significant attention over the years because of the numerous applications enabled by these compact semiconductor chips. In this paper, we demonstrate low loss passive waveguides and highly efficient arrayed waveguide gratings that can be used, for example, to beam combine infrared (IR) laser arrays. The waveguide structure used consists of an In0.53Ga0.47As core and InP cladding layers. This material system was chosen because of its compatibility with future monolithic integration with quantum cascade lasers. Different photonic circuits were fabricated using standard semiconductor processes, and experiments conducted with these chips demonstrated low-loss waveguides with an estimated propagation loss of ∼ 1.2 dB/cm as well as micro-ring resonators with an intrinsic Q-factor of 174,000. Arrayed waveguide gratings operating in the 5.15–5.34 µm range feature low insertion loss and non-uniformity of ∼ 0.9 dB and ∼ 0.6 dB, respectively. The demonstration of the present photonic circuits paves the path toward monolithic fabrication of compact infrared light sources with advanced functionalities beneficial to many chemical sensing and high-power applications.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jan 27, 2023
Source ID
10.1364/oe.480704

Entities

People

  • Christian Pflügl
  • Daryoosh Vakhshoori
  • Juejun Hu
  • Khoi Phuong Dao
  • Laurent Diehl
  • Qingyang Du
  • Tushar Sanjay Karnik

Organizations

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology
  • Naval Sea Systems Command

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Materials science

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy
  • Microelectronics
  • Quantum Computing