Chip-based laser resonator device for highly coherent laser generation

• US 9,293,887 B2
• Filed: 06/15/2012
• Issued: 03/22/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/17/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Original Assignee: California Institute of Technology
• Inventors: Li, Jiang, Lee, Hansuek, Chen, Tong, Vahala, Kerry
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Joshua
• Application Number:
  US13/525,147
• Publication Number:
  US 20150092808A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,376 Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 3/083 Ring lasers fibre ring lasers H01S3/06791
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/094057 by tapered duct or homogenized light pipe, e.g. for concentrating pump light
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/0941 of a laser diode
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/176 silica or silicate glass
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 3/30 using scattering effects, e.g. stimulated Brillouin or Raman effects
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/1075 Disk lasers with special modes, e.g. whispering gallery lasers
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/2275 mesa created by etching

Abstract

A highly-coherent chip-based laser generating system includes a disk resonator incorporating a wedge structure fabricated from a silicon dioxide layer of a chip. The disk resonator is operable to generate a highly-coherent laser from a low-coherence optical pump input provided at an optical power level as low as 60 μW. The disk resonator is fabricated with sub-micron cavity size control that allows generation of a highly-coherent laser using a controllable Stimulated Brillouin Scattering process that includes matching of a cavity free-spectral-range to a Brillouin shift frequency in silica. While providing several advantages due to fabrication on a chip, the highly-coherent laser produced by the disk resonator may feature a Schawlow-Townes noise level as low as 0.06 Hz²/Hz (measured with the coherent laser at a power level of about 400 μW) and a technical noise that is at least 30 dB lower than the low-coherence optical pump input.

Claims

1. A laser source comprising:

(a) a pump laser source and an optical fiber arranged to launch pump laser power to propagate along the optical fiber past a tapered segment thereof; and

(b) a semiconductor oxide disk optical resonator positioned on a semiconductor substrate so as to enable optical coupling of at least a portion of the pump laser power from the optical fiber into the disk optical resonator, wherein;

(c) the disk optical resonator rests on a circumscribed, flat-topped protrusion from a surface of the substrate;

(d) the pump laser source and the disk optical resonator are arranged so that a selected optical frequency of the pump laser power substantially coincides with an optical frequency of a resonant optical mode of the disk optical resonator;

(e) the disk optical resonator is arranged with a substantially frusto-conical outer circumferential surface, characterized by a slope angle greater than about 27°

, so as to exhibit a Q-factor greater than about 10⁷ at the pump laser optical frequency; and

(f) the disk optical resonator is arranged so as to exhibit a free spectral range that substantially coincides with an optical frequency of a stimulated Brillouin gain spectrum of the semiconductor oxide disk optical resonator, so that the portion of the pump laser power coupled into the disk optical resonator, with the pump laser power above a pump laser power threshold level, results in stimulated Brillouin laser oscillation in the disk optical resonator.

2. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the semiconductor substrate comprises silicon and the semiconductor oxide disk optical resonator comprises silicon dioxide.

3. The laser source of claim 2 wherein the free spectral range of the disk optical resonator is 10.8 GHz±

0.5 MHz so as to substantially coincide with the stimulated Brillouin gain spectrum of the disk optical resonator comprising silicon dioxide.

4. The laser source of claim 1 further comprising a photodetector arranged so as to provide an error signal for locking the optical frequency of the pump laser power to the optical frequency of the resonant optical mode of the disk optical resonator.

5. The laser course of claim 1 wherein the pump laser power threshold level is about 60 μ

W.

6. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the disk optical resonator is arranged so as to exhibit a laser output noise level of about 0.06 Hz²/Hz at a stimulated Brillouin laser output power of about 400 μ

W.

7. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the pump laser source and the disk optical resonator are arranged so that a laser output noise level of the stimulated Brillouin laser oscillation exhibited by the disk optical resonator is about 30 dB lower than a pump laser power noise level exhibited by the pump laser source.

8. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the disk optical resonator is between about 8 μ

m thick and about 10 μ

m thick.

9. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the disk optical resonator comprises a remnant of a wet-etched layer of semiconductor oxide material grown on the substrate surface, and the flat-topped protrusion comprises a remnant of a dry-etched surface of the substrate.

10. The laser source of claim 1 wherein the pump laser source, the optical fiber, and the disk optical resonator are arranged so that the stimulated Brillouin laser oscillation exhibits an overall efficiency of at least 90% or a differential efficiency of at least 95%.

11. An article comprising:

(a) a substantially flat semiconductor wafer having on one surface thereof a set of multiple, circumscribed, flat-topped protrusions of semiconductor wafer material; and

(b) a set of multiple disk optical resonators, wherein each disk optical resonator of the set is positioned on a corresponding one of the flat-topped protrusions of the semiconductor wafer and comprises a semiconductor oxide material, wherein;

(c) each disk optical resonator of the set includes a frusto-conical outer circumferential surface characterized by a slope angle greater than about 27°

so as to exhibit a Q-factor greater than about 10⁷ at a selected pump laser optical frequency; and

(d) the mean diameter of the set of disk optical resonators, and variation of diameter among the disk optical resonators of the set, result in a free spectral range exhibited by each disk optical resonator that substantially coincides with a Brillouin shift frequency of the semiconductor oxide material.

12. The article of claim 11 wherein the semiconductor wafer material comprises silicon and the semiconductor oxide material comprises silicon dioxide.

13. The article of claim 12 wherein the free spectral range of each disk optical resonator of the set is 10.8 GHz±

0.5 MHz so as to substantially coincide with the stimulated Brillouin gain spectrum of the disk optical resonator comprising silicon dioxide.

14. The article of claim 11 wherein each disk optical resonator of the set is characterized by a diameter that deviates from a mean diameter of the set of disk optical resonators by less than 1 part in 20,000.

15. The article of claim 11 wherein each disk optical resonator of the set is between about 8 μ

m thick and about 10 μ

m thick.

16. The article of claim 11 wherein each disk optical resonator of the set comprises a remnant of a wet-etched layer of semiconductor oxide material grown on the wafer surface, and each flat-topped protrusion of the set comprises a remnant of a dry-etched surface of the wafer.