Single crystal erbium compound nanowires as high gain material for on-chip light source applications

doi:10.1007/s12200-016-0620-5

Front. Optoelectron.

2016, Vol. 9

Issue (2) : 312-317 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-016-0620-5

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Single crystal erbium compound nanowires as high gain material for on-chip light source applications

Zhicheng LIU¹,Hao SUN²,Leijun YIN¹,Yongzhuo LI²,Jianxing ZHANG²,Cun-Zheng NING^1,^2,^*(

)

1. School of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287, USA
2. Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China

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Abstract

Integrated photonics requires high gain optical materials in the telecom wavelength range for optical amplifiers and coherent light sources. Erbium (Er) containing materials are ideal candidates due to the 1.5 μm emission from Er³⁺ ions. However, the Er density in typical Er-doped materials is less than 10²⁰ cm^-3, thus limiting the maximum optical gain to a few dB/cm, too small to be useful for integrated photonic applications. Er compounds could potentially solve this problem since they contain much higher Er³⁺ density. So far the existing Er compounds suffer from short lifetime and strong upconversion effects, mainly due to poor crystal qualities. Recently, we explore a new Er compound: erbium chloride silicate (ECS, Er₃(SiO₄)₂Cl) in the form of nanowire, which facilitates the growth of high quality single crystal with relatively large Er³⁺ density (1.62 × 10²² cm^–3). Previous optical results show that the high crystal quality of ECS material leads to a long lifetime up to 1 ms. The Er lifetime-density product was found to be the largest among all the Er containing materials. Pump-probe experiments demonstrated a 644 dB/cm signal enhancement and 30 dB/cm net gain per unit length from a single ECS wire. As a result, such high-gain ECS nanowires can be potentially fabricated into ultra-compact lasers. Even though a single ECS nanowire naturally serves as good waveguide, additional feedback mechanism is needed to form an ultra-compact laser. In this work, we demonstrate the direct fabrication of 1D photonic crystal (PhC) air hole array structure on a single ECS nanowire using focused ion beam (FIB). Transmission measurement shows polarization-dependent stop-band behavior. For transverse electric (TE) polarization, we observed stop-band suppression as much as 12 dB with a 9 μm long airholed structure. Through numerical simulation, we showed that Q-factor as high as 11000 can be achieved at 1.53 μm for a 1D PhC micro-cavity on an ECS nanowire. Such a high Q cavity combined with the high material gain of ECS nanowires provides an attractive solution for ultra-compact lasers, an important goal of this research.

Keywords nanomaterials rare-earth-doped materials lasers optical amplifiers nanostructure fabrication microcavity devices

Corresponding Author(s): Cun-Zheng NING

Just Accepted Date: 26 February 2016 Online First Date: 29 March 2016 Issue Date: 05 April 2016

Cite this article:

Zhicheng LIU,Hao SUN,Leijun YIN, et al. Single crystal erbium compound nanowires as high gain material for on-chip light source applications[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 2016, 9(2): 312-317.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-016-0620-5
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y2016/V9/I2/312

Fig.1 PL spectrum of ECS across visible to NIR. The spectra are normalized at each emission band

Fig.2 Absorption and emission transitions with 800 nm laser pumping. The numbers at each emission transition represent the emission wavelengths, with the unit in nm

Fig.3 (a) and (b) Illustration of the 1D PhC structure in angled view and top view; (c) and (d) SEM images of the 14-period PhC grating in single ECS nanowire. Scale bar is 2 mm

Fig.4 (a) Illustration of the fiber-nanowire-fiber coupling system; (b) microscope image of the coupling system from the top view; (c) and (d) FDTD simulation of the E-field pattern under TE- and TM- polarization injection; (e) and (f) real-color images of the upconversion along the nanowire in (b) under TE- and TM- polarization injection at 1531 nm; (g) experimental (solid) and simulated transmission spectra under TE- (red) and TM- (blue) polarization injection. Scale bar is 10 μm

Tab.1 Structure parameters of the designed 1D PhC micro-cavity on an ECS nanowire. The Q-factor of the fundamental mode in this microcavity is 1.1×10⁵

Fig.5 (a) Design of 1D PhC micro-cavity on ECS nanowire; (b) E-field profile of the fundamental mode at 1.53 μm

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