A distributed feedback laser integrated on silicon comprising a combination of a waveguide of a first material and a laser diode a second material, different from the first material, wherein the laser diode comprises a plurality of regularly spaced metalized grating elements which form a single longitudinal mode; wherein the waveguide comprises a plurality of waveguide elements separated by metalized regions; and wherein the metalized grating elements and the metalized regions are adapted to be coupled to one another to form the distributed feedback laser.

The disclosed embodiments provide a laser source comprising a silicon waveguide formed in a silicon layer, and a cascaded array of hybrid distributed feedback (DFB) lasers formed by locating sections of III-V gain material over the silicon waveguide. Each DFB laser in the cascaded array comprises a section of III-V gain material located over the silicon waveguide, wherein the section of III-V gain material includes an active region that generates light, and a Bragg grating located between the III-V gain material and the silicon waveguide. This Bragg grating has a resonance frequency within a gain bandwidth of the section of III-V material and is transparent to frequencies that differ from the resonance frequency. Moreover, each DFB laser has a hybrid mode that resides partially in the III-V gain material and partially in silicon.

A tunable laser device comprises a multi-section distributed feedback (DFB) laser having a first Bragg section including a waveguide and a Bragg grating, a second Bragg section comprising a waveguide and a Bragg grating, and a phase section being longitudinally located between the first Bragg section and the second Bragg section. The phase section is made of a passive material, and each Bragg section has a first longitudinal end joining the phase section and a second longitudinal end opposed to the phase section. The Bragg grating of at least one Bragg section has a grating coupling coefficient which decreases from the first longitudinal end to the second longitudinal end of the at least one Bragg section.

Monolithic asymmetric optical waveguide grating resonators including an asymmetric resonant grating are disposed in a waveguide. A first grating strength is provided along a first grating length, and a second grating strength, higher than the first grating strength, is provided along a second grating length. In advantageous embodiments, the effective refractive index along first grating length is substantially matched to the effective refractive index along second grating length through proper design of waveguide and grating parameters. A well-matched effective index of refraction may permit the resonant grating to operate in a highly asymmetric single longitudinal mode (SLM). In further embodiments, an asymmetric monolithic DFB laser diode includes front and back grating sections having waveguide and grating parameters for highly asymmetric operation.

The present disclosure describes a microring OAM laser producing an optical vortex beam with an on-demand topological charge and vector polarization states. This is enabled through combined index and gain/loss modulations at an EP, which breaks the mirror symmetry in the lasing generation dynamics and facilitates unidirectional power oscillation.

The disclosed embodiments provide a laser source comprising a silicon waveguide formed in a silicon layer, and a cascaded array of hybrid distributed feedback (DFB) lasers formed by locating sections of III-V gain material over the silicon waveguide. Each DFB laser in the cascaded array comprises a section of III-V gain material located over the silicon waveguide, wherein the section of III-V gain material includes an active region that generates light, and a Bragg grating located between the III-V gain material and the silicon waveguide. This Bragg grating has a resonance frequency within a gain bandwidth of the section of III-V material and is transparent to frequencies that differ from the resonance frequency. Moreover, each DFB laser has a hybrid mode that resides partially in the III-V gain material and partially in silicon.

An electrically-operated semiconductor laser device and method for forming the laser device are provided. The laser device includes a fin structure to which a waveguide is optically coupled. The waveguide is optically coupled to passive waveguides at either end thereof. The fin structure includes an array of fin elements, each fin element comprising Group III-V materials.

A laser source or a plurality of laser sources in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) are provided with an electrical contact that is either segmented or is connected to a series of vernier resistor segments for supply of current to operate the laser source. In either case, at least one segment of the laser contact or at least one vernier resistor segment can be trimmed in order to vary the amount of current supplied to the laser source resulting in a change to its current density and, thus, a change in its operational wavelength while maintaining the current supplied to the laser source constant.

A method for producing a quantum cascade laser includes the steps of forming a laser structure including a mesa structure and a buried region embedding the mesa structure; forming a mask on the laser structure, the mask including a first pattern that defines a /4 period distribution Bragg reflector structure and a second pattern that defines a 3/4 period distribution Bragg reflector structure; and forming a first distribution Bragg reflector structure, a second distribution Bragg reflector structure, and a semiconductor waveguide structure by dry-etching the laser structure through the mask, the semiconductor waveguide structure including the mesa structure that has first and second end facets. The first distribution Bragg reflector structure is optically coupled to the first end facet. The second distribution Bragg reflector structure is optically coupled to the second end facet. Here, denotes a value of an oscillation wavelength of the quantum cascade laser in vacuum.

Two or more monolithic or heterogeneously integrated substrates are attached to each other and optically edge-coupled using spot-size converters. Spot-size converters are placed between planar optical waveguides and cleaved or etched facets in each substrate. The facets are provide optical edge coupling and the spot-size converters are used to adjust at least the size, shape, and divergence of the optical beams entering or exiting the optical waveguides as to improve the optical coupling between the substrates. In addition to spot-size converters, filtering and other light adjusting elements may be placed between the substrates. Integrated lasers, semiconductor optical amplifiers, and photonic integrated circuits can be provided with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible silicon (Si) photonic substrates, which can also contain integrated electronics.