Monolithically-pumped erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers and lasers

• US 7,655,489 B2
• Filed: 05/19/2008
• Issued: 02/02/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/19/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: University of Notre DAME Du Lac
• Original Assignee: University of Notre DAME Du Lac
• Inventors: Huang, Mingjun, Hall, Douglas
• Primary Examiner(s): PENG, CHARLIE YU
• Application Number:
  US12/123,257
• Publication Number:
  US 20080285610A1
• Time in Patent Office: 624 Days
• Field of Search: 257/E21.248, 257/E21.286, 257/E33.067, 372/45.011, 359/337.3, 438/31
• US Class Current: 438/31
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 13/048 Silica-free oxide glass compositions
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 17/23 Oxides C03C17/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2217/228 Other specific oxides
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2217/242 with rare earth metals
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 2218/32 After-treatment
• CPC Class Codes: C03C 25/6286 Ion implantation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02178 the material containing aluminium, e.g. Al2O3
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02192 the material containing at least one rare earth metal element, e.g. oxides of lanthanides, scandium or yttrium
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02233 of the semiconductor substrate or a semiconductor layer
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02255 formation by thermal treatment H01L21/02252 takes precedence; after treatment of an insulating film H01L21/3105 and subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02321 introduction of substances into an already existing insulating layer H01L21/02227 and subgroups take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/02351 treatment by exposure to corpuscular radiation, e.g. exposure to electrons, alpha-particles, protons or ions
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/31155 by ion implantation
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/31666 of AIII BV compounds
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 2301/02 ASE (amplified spontaneous emission), noise; Reduction thereof
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0632 Thin film lasers in which light propagates in the plane of the thin film
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0941 of a laser diode
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/1608 erbium
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/17 amorphous, e.g. glass
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/175 phosphate glass
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/026 : Monolithically integrated components, e.g. waveguides, monitoring photo-detectors, drivers stabilisation of output H01S5/06
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/18308 : having a special structure for lateral current or light confinement
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/18358 : containing spacer layers to adjust the phase of the light wave in the cavity
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/2004 : Confining in the direction perpendicular to the layer structure
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/40 : Arrangement of two or more semiconductor lasers, not provided for in groups H01S5/02 - H01S5/30 H01S5/50 takes precedence

Abstract

Disclosed is a method of doping an oxide. The example method includes forming at least one of an AlGaAs oxide or an InAlP oxide on a GaAs substrate, and incorporating Erbium into the at least one AlGaAs oxide or InAlP oxide via ion implantation to form an Erbium-doped oxide layer. The example method also includes annealing the substrate and the at least one AlGaAs oxide or InAlP oxide.

Claims

1. A method of doping an oxide, comprising:

forming an InAlP oxide host on a substrate by controlling a composition of the oxide;

broadening a photoluminescence spectral width value by incorporating Erbium into the InAlP oxide via ion implantation to form an Erbium-doped oxide layer; and

annealing the substrate and the InAlP oxide.

2. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein controlling the composition of the oxide further comprises controlling at least one of an In concentration, an Al concentration, or a P concentration of the InAlP oxide.

3. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein the annealing is performed between 500 and 800 degrees Celsius.

4. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein the Erbium is incorporated at a dosage of at least 1×

10⁺¹⁵ cm<sup>−

2</sup>.

5. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, further comprising placing the Erbium-doped oxide layer between a lower semiconductor layer and an upper semiconductor layer to form an optical waveguide.

6. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein the substrate is GaAs.

7. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 5, wherein an interface between the Erbium-doped oxide layer and the lower semiconductor layer, and an interface between the Erbium-doped oxide layer and the upper semiconductor layer comprise a large refractive index sufficient to confine light.

8. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 5, wherein the upper semiconductor layer comprises deposited SiO₂, the upper semiconductor layer forming a waveguide cladding.

9. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 5, further comprising forming an electrical contacting layer under the lower semiconductor layer and a vertical resonant cavity under the electrical contacting layer to facilitate pump light oscillation inside the vertical resonant cavity.

10. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 9, wherein the vertical resonant cavity comprises a top metal mirror and a bottom distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirror, the mirrors surrounding an InGaAs quantum well heterostructure (QWH).

11. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 10, further comprising forming a p-n diode active region around the QWH, the active region generating light for pump excitation of Erbium ions.

12. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 11, further comprising co-doping the InAlP oxide with Ytterbium to facilitate absorption of QWH broadband emission.

13. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 12, wherein the active region operates in an incoherent emission regime below a lasing current threshold.

14. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 9, wherein the optical waveguide functions as at least one of a monolithically pumped amplifier, a broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source, or a laser.

15. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 14, wherein the laser operates in at least one of a continuous wave (cw) mode or a pulsed mode.

16. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 15, further comprising at least one of Q-switching or mode-locking to operate in the pulsed mode.

17. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 14, wherein the at least one amplifier or laser comprises a wavelength of approximately 1.53 microns.

18. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 14, wherein the at least one amplifier or ASE light source comprises a full-width-half-maximum optical emission bandwidth between 40 nm and 60 nm.

19. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein forming the Erbium-doped oxide layer further comprises broadening an Er emission width value in the InAlP oxide host.

20. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 19, wherein the Er emission width value is at least 61 nanometers.

21. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 1, wherein forming the Erbium-doped oxide layer further comprises increasing an Er luminescence lifetime value in the InAlP oxide host.

22. A method of doping an oxide as defined in claim 21, wherein the Er luminescence lifetime value is at least 8 milliseconds.

23. An Erbium-doped waveguide device, comprising:

at least one InAlP oxide formed on a substrate, the InAlP oxide doped with Erbium after oxidation to minimize photoluminescence-quenching As complexes; and

a lower semiconductor layer and an upper semiconductor layer, the upper and lower layers surrounding the Erbium-doped InAlP oxide to form an optical waveguide therein.

24. An Erbium-doped waveguide device as defined in claim 23, wherein the substrate comprises GaAs.

25. An Erbium-doped waveguide device as defined in claim 23, wherein the device comprises:

an electrical contacting layer under the lower semiconductor layer; and

a vertical cavity under the electrical contacting layer to facilitate an optical pump.

26. An Erbium-doped waveguide device as defined in claim 25, wherein the waveguide device comprises at least one of a monolithically pumped amplifier, a broadband amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) light source, or a laser.