2022-06-17 スイス連邦工科大学ローザンヌ校(EPFL)
研究者らは、ミリメートルスケールのフットプリントに最大1/2メートルの長さの窒化ケイ素（Si3N4）光集積回路を用いたEDWAを構築し、145mW以上の出力電力と30dB以上の小信号純益（連続動作時でテレコム帯の1000倍以上となる）の記録的出力を得ました。この性能は、商用ハイエンドEDFAやシリコンフォトニクスの最先端異種集積III-V族半導体増幅器に匹敵するものです。
＜関連情報＞
- https://actu.epfl.ch/news/boosting-light-power-revolutionizes-communications/
- https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abo2631
光集積回路によるエルビウムドープアンプ A photonic integrated circuit–based erbium-doped amplifier
Yang Liu,Zheru Qiu,Xinru Ji ,Anton Lukashchuk,Jijun He,Johann Riemensberger,Martin Hafermann ,Rui Ning Wang,Junqiu Liu,Carsten Ronning ,Tobias J. Kippenberg
Science Published:6 Jun 2022
DOI: 10.1126/science.abo263
Abstract
Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers revolutionized long-haul optical communications and laser technology. Erbium ions could provide a basis for efficient optical amplification in photonic integrated circuits but their use remains impractical as a result of insufficient output power. We demonstrate a photonic integrated circuit–based erbium amplifier reaching 145 milliwatts of output power and more than 30 decibels of small-signal gain—on par with commercial fiber amplifiers and surpassing state-of-the-art III-V heterogeneously integrated semiconductor amplifiers. We apply ion implantation to ultralow–loss silicon nitride (Si3N4) photonic integrated circuits, which are able to increase the soliton microcomb output power by 100 times, achieving power requirements for low-noise photonic microwave generation and wavelength-division multiplexing optical communications. Endowing Si3N4 photonic integrated circuits with gain enables the miniaturization of various fiber-based devices such as high–pulse-energy femtosecond mode-locked lasers.
