Towards heterogeneous integration of optical isolators and circulators with lasers on silicon [Invited]

Author(s)
D. Huang, P. Pintus, and J. E. Bowers
Publication Image
The transmission spectra of the isolator at 1549.5 nm for 40 mA of applied current showing 25 dB of optical isolation.
Publication Date
Publication Type
Journal
Journal/Conference Name
Optical Materials Express
Indexing
Vol 8, No 9, page 2471-2483

Optical isolators and circulators are extremely valuable components to have in photonic integrated circuits, but their integration with lasers poses significant design and fabrication challenges. These challenges largely stem from the incompatibility of magnetooptic material with the silicon or III-V platforms commonly used today for photonic integration. Heterogeneous integration using wafer bonding can overcome many of these challenges, and provides a promising path towards integrating isolators with lasers on the same silicon chip. An optical isolator operating for TE mode with 25 dB of isolation, 6.5 dB of insertion loss, and tunability over 40nm is demonstrated and a path towards integrating this isolator with the heterogeneous silicon/III-V laser is described.

Publication File
Research Areas
Silicon Photonics
More Research Areas
Isolators & Circulators