An optical source is described. This optical source includes a semiconductor optical amplifier (with a semiconductor other than silicon) that provides an optical gain medium and that includes a reflector. Moreover the hybrid external cavity laser includes a photonic chip with: an optical waveguide that conveys an optical signal output by the semiconductor optical amplifier; and a ring resonator, having a resonance wavelength, which reflects at least a resonance wavelength in the optical signal, where the reflector and the ring resonator define an optical cavity. Furthermore, the photonic chip includes: a thermal-tuning mechanism that adjusts the resonance wavelength; a photo-detector that measures an optical power output by the ring resonator; and control logic that adjusts the temperature of the ring resonator based on the measured optical power to lock a cavity mode of the optical cavity to a carrier wavelength.

A manufacturing method of a channel type planar waveguide amplifier and a channel type planar waveguide amplifier. The method is to pattern the channel structures on the surface of the optical substrate, and then seal them together with rare earth doped chalcogenide glass into the quartz tube, and finally the channel-type waveguide structure is directly created via the melt-quenching method to achieve high quality planar waveguide amplifier. Excellent side wall roughness can be assured since the present invention does not have any direct etching of rare earth ions. Chemical composition and the activity of the rare earth ions can be maintained since the whole process is not involved in any decomposition of the glass into atoms, ions or clusters as that occurs during the fabrication process of the films deposited by the traditional methods like thermal evaporation and magnetron sputtering.

Provided is a tunable laser source including a plurality of optical waveguides, at least three optical resonators provided between the plurality of optical waveguides and optically coupled to the plurality of optical waveguides, the at least three optical resonators having different lengths, and at least one optical amplifier provided on at least one of the plurality of optical waveguides, wherein a ratio of a first length of a first optical resonator of the at least three optical resonators to a second length of a second optical resonator of the at least three optical resonators is not an integer.

A chip-scale mode-locked laser including a cavity including a gain medium for amplifying signal electromagnetic radiation (signal) through stimulated emission, the signal comprising a signal wavelength; and a passive or active mode-locking device to enforce pulse formation in the laser. The mode-locking device includes a thin-film waveguide having a thickness on the order of the signal wavelength so as to confine and guide the signal along the thin-film waveguide, and a material comprising a second-order nonlinear susceptibility to enable active or passive mode-locking of the signal. The mode-locking device leads to generation of pulses of the signal outputted from the mode-locked laser.

Provided are an optical waveguide device and a laser apparatus including the same. The optical waveguide device includes a peripheral part disposed on an edge region of a substrate, an air pocket disposed on a central region of the substrate within the peripheral part, an optical waveguide comprising a core layer, which is disposed on an upper portion of the substrate within the air pocket to extend in a first direction, and an electrode on the core layer, and a plurality of hinges disposed on the air pocket to connect the optical waveguide to the peripheral part in a second direction crossing the first direction.

A single-mode micro-laser based on a single whispering gallery mode optical microcavity and a preparation method thereof described includes: preparing a desired single whispering gallery mode optical microcavity doped with rare earth ions or containing a gain material such as quantum dots, wherein an optical microcavity configuration include a micro-disk cavity, a ring-shaped microcavity, and a racetrack-shaped microcavity; a material type include lithium niobate, silicon dioxide, silicon nitride, etc.; preparing an optical fiber cone or an optical waveguide of a required size which can excite high-order modes of the optical microcavity, such as a ridge waveguide and a circular waveguides; and coupling, integrating, and packaging the optical fiber cone or the optical waveguide with the microcavity. A pump light is coupled to the optical fiber cone or the optical waveguide to excite a compound mode with a polygonal configuration.

An integrated Ti:Sapphire laser device includes a substrate [100], a first waveguide resonator [102] composed of a gain medium integrated onto the substrate in a planar technology configuration, a frequency doubler [104] composed of a second order nonlinear material integrated onto the substrate in a planar technology configuration, and a second waveguide resonator [106] composed of a titanium doped sapphire gain medium integrated onto the substrate in a planar technology configuration.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide a waveguide-confining layer, a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) die with embodiments of a waveguide-confining layer, and methods to form the same. The waveguide-confining layer may include an oxide layer over a buried insulator layer, a silicon-based optical confinement structure embedded within or positioned on the oxide layer, and first and second blocking layers over the oxide layer and separated from each other by a horizontal slot. The first and second blocking layers include a metal or an oxide. A gain medium is positioned on the oxide layer and within the horizontal slot between the first and second blocking layers, and has a lower refractive index than each of the first and second blocking layers. The gain medium is vertically aligned with the silicon-based optical confinement structure, and a portion of the oxide layer separates the gain medium from the silicon-based optical confinement structure.

An optical resonator device, which can be implemented in a Brillouin laser, comprises a first waveguide ring resonator having a first diameter, and one or more second waveguide ring resonators adjacent to the first waveguide ring resonator. The one or more second waveguide ring resonators each have a second diameter that is less than the first diameter. The one or more second waveguide ring resonators optically communicate with the first waveguide ring resonator, such that an optical signal in the first waveguide ring resonator optically couples into the one or more second waveguide ring resonators. The one or more second waveguide ring resonators is configured such that when the optical signal resonates within the first waveguide ring resonator and the one or more second waveguide ring resonators, the optical signal within the first waveguide ring resonator is suppressed.

A ring optical resonator and one or more input optical waveguides are arranged on a substrate, and are arranged and positioned to establish evanescent optical coupling between them. The ring optical resonator, the substrate, or both include one or more nonlinear optical materials. To detect an electromagnetic signal at frequency ν.sub.EM incident on the resonator, an input optical signal at frequency ν.sub.IN propagates along the waveguide and around the resonator. The incident electromagnetic signal and the input optical signal generate one or more sideband optical signals at corresponding optical sideband frequencies ν.sub.SF=ν.sub.IN+ν.sub.EM or ν.sub.DF=ν.sub.IN−ν.sub.EM. To generate an electromagnetic signal to propagate away from the resonator, input optical signals at frequencies ν.sub.IN1 and ν.sub.IN2 propagate along one or more waveguides and around the resonator and generate the electromagnetic signal incident at frequency ν.sub.EM=|ν.sub.IN1−ν.sub.IN2|.