Singapore, 28 March 2020– The wavelength region of about 1650 nm enables pervasive applications. Instances, while not exhaustive, include gas spectroscopy, communications, LIDAR, surgery and medical diagnostics. Silicon photonics is a disruptive photonic, through advanced silicon manufacturing, it is possible to obtain unprecedented levels of integration densities on the platform. Thereby, it would be advantageous for the development of a laser source that operates on the silicon platform, at the abovementioned wavelength region.

In this work, through the hybrid integration between an III-V optical amplifier and extended silicon photonic laser cavity, we demonstrate a hybrid silicon laser that operates from 1647-1690 nm. Output power as high as 31.1 mW is demonstrated. Via integration with silicon photonics technology, the laser is shown to have one of the highest spectral purity in the world.

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