Demonstration of ultralow-threshold 2 micrometer microlasers on chip

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SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy
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SCIENCE CHINA Physics, Mechanics & Astronomy, Volume 58, Issue 11: 114204(2015) https://doi.org/10.1007/s11433-015-5669-4

Demonstration of ultralow-threshold 2 micrometer microlasers on chip

HuiBo FAN, XiaoShun JIANG, Yang DING, Min XIAO
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  • ReceivedJan 6, 2015
  • AcceptedMar 16, 2015
  • PublishedSep 25, 2015
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Abstract

We demonstrate ultralow-threshold thulium-doped, as well as thulium-holmium-codoped, microtoroid lasers on silicon chips, operating at the wavelength of around 2 mm. High quality factor whispering gallery mode (WGM) microtoroid cavities with proper thulium and holmium concentrations are fabricated from the silica sol-gel films. The highly confined WGMs make the microcavity lasers operate with ultralow thresholds, approximately 2.8 mW and 2.7 mW for the thulium-doped and the thulium-holmium-codoped microlasers, respectively.


Funded by

National Key Basic Research Program of China(2012CB921804)

and WU XueWei for technical assistant.

National Natural Science Foundation of China . The authors thank LI Tao and LV XinJie for providing us with an optical spectrum analyzer for the microlaser measurements(61435007)


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    Figure 1

    (Color online) (a) Schematic diagram of the set-up for the microtoroid laser measurement. VOA: variable optical attenuator; PM: power meter. (b) Side-view scanning electron microscope of a fabricated Tm3+- doped sol-gel microtoroid with a diameter of 53.3 mm. (c) Top-view optical microscope image of the Tm3+-doped microtoroid pumped at the wavelength of 1555.02 nm. (d) Top-view optical microscope image of the Tm3+- doped microtoroid pumped at the wavelength of 1616.01 nm.

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    Figure 2

    (Color online) (a), (b) Typical single-longitudinal mode and multi-longitudinal mode laser emission of a Tm3+-doped sol-gel toroidal microlaser with the doping concentration of 1×10 19 cm-3. (c) Measured laser output power as a function of the absorbed pump power for the Tm3+-doped sol-gel toroidal microlaser with the doping concentration of 1×10 19 cm-3. The lasing threshold power is measured to be 2.8 μW with the slope efficiency of 5.9%. (d) Lasing threshold dependence on Tm3+-doping concentration.

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    Figure 3

    (Color online) (a) Top-view optical microscope image of a Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped toroidal microcavity coupled with a fiber taper. (b) Simplified energy level diagram of the thulium and holmium ions for the Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped system. Tm3+ ions, pumped by the laser operating around the wavelength of 1600 nm, will transfer energy to the nearby Ho3+ ions used as the gain medium for the 2 μm laser. (c) Top-view optical microscope image of the Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped microtoroid pumped at the wavelength of 1553.97 nm. (d) Top-view optical microscope image of the Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped microtoroid pumped at the wavelength of 1619.42 nm.

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    Figure 4

    (Color online) (a), (b) Typical single-longitudinal mode and multi-longitudinal mode laser emission from a Tm3+/Ho 3+-codoped sol-gel microtoroid laser with the concentration ratio of 8. (c) The relationship between the laser output power and the absorbed pump power for a Tm3+/Ho3+-codoped sol-gel microtoroid laser with the concentration ratio of 8. (d) Lasing threshold dependence on Tm3+/Ho3+-codoping concentration ratio.2-μm-wavelength microlasers will be useful for gas sensing, LIDAR, as well as medical applications. Especially, due to

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