Titanium:sapphire-on-insulator integrated lasers and amplifiers

Joshua Yang, Kasper Gasse, Daniil M. Lukin, Melissa A. Guidry, Geun Ho Ahn, Alexander D. White and Jelena Vučković ()
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Joshua Yang: Stanford University
Kasper Gasse: Stanford University
Daniil M. Lukin: Stanford University
Melissa A. Guidry: Stanford University
Geun Ho Ahn: Stanford University
Alexander D. White: Stanford University
Jelena Vučković: Stanford University

Nature, 2024, vol. 630, issue 8018, 853-859

Abstract: Abstract Titanium:sapphire (Ti:sapphire) lasers have been essential for advancing fundamental research and technological applications, including the development of the optical frequency comb1, two-photon microscopy2 and experimental quantum optics3,4. Ti:sapphire lasers are unmatched in bandwidth and tuning range, yet their use is restricted because of their large size, cost and need for high optical pump powers5. Here we demonstrate a monocrystalline titanium:sapphire-on-insulator (Ti:SaOI) photonics platform that enables dramatic miniaturization, cost reduction and scalability of Ti:sapphire technology. First, through the fabrication of low-loss whispering-gallery-mode resonators, we realize a Ti:sapphire laser operating with an ultralow, sub-milliwatt lasing threshold. Then, through orders-of-magnitude improvement in mode confinement in Ti:SaOI waveguides, we realize an integrated solid-state (that is, non-semiconductor) optical amplifier operating below 1 μm. We demonstrate unprecedented distortion-free amplification of picosecond pulses to peak powers reaching 1.0 kW. Finally, we demonstrate a tunable integrated Ti:sapphire laser, which can be pumped with low-cost, miniature, off-the-shelf green laser diodes. This opens the doors to new modalities of Ti:sapphire lasers, such as massively scalable Ti:sapphire laser-array systems for several applications. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we use a Ti:SaOI laser array as the sole optical control for a cavity quantum electrodynamics experiment with artificial atoms in silicon carbide6. This work is a key step towards the democratization of Ti:sapphire technology through a three-orders-of-magnitude reduction in cost and footprint and introduces solid-state broadband amplification of sub-micron wavelength light.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41586-024-07457-2

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