Low-noise frequency-agile photonic integrated lasers for coherent ranging

Grigory Lihachev, Johann Riemensberger, Wenle Weng, Junqiu Liu, Hao Tian, Anat Siddharth, Viacheslav Snigirev, Vladimir Shadymov, Andrey Voloshin, Rui Ning Wang, Jijun He, Sunil A. Bhave and Tobias J. Kippenberg ()
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Grigory Lihachev: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Johann Riemensberger: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Wenle Weng: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Junqiu Liu: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Hao Tian: Purdue University
Anat Siddharth: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Viacheslav Snigirev: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Vladimir Shadymov: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Andrey Voloshin: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Rui Ning Wang: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Jijun He: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)
Sunil A. Bhave: Purdue University
Tobias J. Kippenberg: Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL)

Nature Communications, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Frequency modulated continuous wave laser ranging (FMCW LiDAR) enables distance mapping with simultaneous position and velocity information, is immune to stray light, can achieve long range, operate in the eye-safe region of 1550 nm and achieve high sensitivity. Despite its advantages, it is compounded by the simultaneous requirement of both narrow linewidth low noise lasers that can be precisely chirped. While integrated silicon-based lasers, compatible with wafer scale manufacturing in large volumes at low cost, have experienced major advances and are now employed on a commercial scale in data centers, and impressive progress has led to integrated lasers with (ultra) narrow sub-100 Hz-level intrinsic linewidth based on optical feedback from photonic circuits, these lasers presently lack fast nonthermal tuning, i.e. frequency agility as required for coherent ranging. Here, we demonstrate a hybrid photonic integrated laser that exhibits very narrow intrinsic linewidth of 25 Hz while offering linear, hysteresis-free, and mode-hop-free-tuning beyond 1 GHz with up to megahertz actuation bandwidth constituting 1.6 × 1015 Hz/s tuning speed. Our approach uses foundry-based technologies - ultralow-loss (1 dB/m) Si3N4 photonic microresonators, combined with aluminium nitride (AlN) or lead zirconium titanate (PZT) microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) based stress-optic actuation. Electrically driven low-phase-noise lasing is attained by self-injection locking of an Indium Phosphide (InP) laser chip and only limited by fundamental thermo-refractive noise at mid-range offsets. By utilizing difference-drive and apodization of the photonic chip to suppress mechanical vibrations of the chip, a flat actuation response up to 10 MHz is achieved. We leverage this capability to demonstrate a compact coherent LiDAR engine that can generate up to 800 kHz FMCW triangular optical chirp signals, requiring neither any active linearization nor predistortion compensation, and perform a 10 m optical ranging experiment, with a resolution of 12.5 cm. Our results constitute a photonic integrated laser system for scenarios where high compactness, fast frequency actuation, and high spectral purity are required.

Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30911-6

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