Available Technology
Highly focused, ultra-compact, low threshold lasers for use in integrated electronics
Technology:
Unidirectional lasers based on micro-ring resonators
Markets Addressed
Lasers with small footprints are crucial components in modern technology. They are omnipresent in our daily life, found in everything from computer mice and DVD players to class room laser pointers. Additionally, as technology in integrated circuits advances, lasers with small device footprint are needed for on-chip applications. The technology offered here, has a small foot print size and focused emission, giving it the potential to have a large impact on network communications and sensing applications.
Innovations and Advantages
Micro-ring lasers are promising candidates for ultra-compact, on-chip applications. However, existing micro-ring lasers are plagued by large divergence angles. A group of Harvard researchers led by Prof. Capasso have overcome this problem and achieved a significant reduction in the divergence angle of micro-ring lasers from 30 degrees to 6 degrees. This narrow angle allows laser light to be efficiently channeled into other structures such as waveguides. This provides the ability to power other on-chip devices. The technology has also demonstrated robustness of design by showing that the beam divergence is insensitive to pumping current and notch geometry. Other advantages of this invention include its small size, low current threshold and very high quality factor (Q). Because this micro-ring laser has very high Q, it has the potential to outperform other lasers such as vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL) in the area of sensing.
This invention provides a bridge for utilizing micro-ring lasers for on-chip integrated photonics.
Cartoon illustration of unidirectional lasing from a micro-ring resonator.
(Credit: Courtesy of the laboratory of Federico Capasso, Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS))
Additional Information
Publication:
Whispering-gallery mode resonators for highly unidirectional laser action,Qi Jie Wang, Changling Yan, Nanfang Yu, Julia Unterhinninghofen, Jan Wiersig, Christian Pflugl, Laurent Diehl, Tadataka Edamura, Masamichi Yamanishi, Hirofumi Kan, Federico Capasso PNAS 107, 22407 (2010)
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Inventor(s):
Capasso, Federico
Unterhinninghofen, Julia
Wang, Qi Jie
Wiersig, Jan
Yu, Nanfang
Categories:
- Electronics and Electrical Engineering
- Imaging Agents
- Instruments
- Photonics, Optics and Optoelectronics
- Physics
For further information, please contact:
Alan Gordon, Director of Business Development
(617) 384-5000
Reference Harvard Case #3994