COBRA Annual Report 2007 - Technische Universiteit Eindhoven

Nanolasers for Digital Photonics
For the long term OED is focusing on ultracompact
lasers for use in digital photonic applications, and
their integration with silicon-based electronics.
Since we published the world’s smallest electrically
pumped photonic flip-flop in 2004 (published in
Nature) we worked on lasers that are much smaller.
Recently we achieved a major breakthrough: the
world’s first metallic nanocavity lasers, devices
that are not much larger than modern transistors
(diameter < 300 nm), and with a potential to
become even smaller and to operate at speeds
in the THz range. Until recently it was commonly
believed that lasing in such low-Q cavities was not
possible. Our work was reviewed in an editorial in
Nature Photonics. The first device operated at 70K
with a 6 μA threshold current. We are presently
close to room temperature (RT) and expect to reach
RT operation in the next year. This device may cause
a revolution in ultrafast signal processing.
Highlight:
• The world’s first metallic nano-cavity laser (the
smallest electrically pumped laser ever reported,
Nature Photonics Oct 2007)
Key publications
1 Hill, M.T.; Oei, Y.S.; Smalbrugge, E.; Zhu, Y.;
de Vries, T.; van Veldhoven, P.J.; van Otten,
F.W.M.; Eijkemans, T.J.; Turkiewicz, J.P.; de
Waardt, H.; Geluk, E.J.; Kwon, S.-H.; Lee, Y.-H.;
Nötzel, R.; Smit, M.K.; Lasing in metallic-coated
nanocavities, Nature Photonics, Vol 1, Nr. 10,
pp 589—594, 2007
2 Yousefi, M.; Barbarin, Y.; Beri, S.; Bente, E.A.J.M.;
Smit, M.K.; Nötzel, R.; Lenstra, D., “New role
for nonlinear dynamics and chaos in integrated
semiconductor laser technology”, Phys. Rev. Lett.
98, nr. 044101, 2007, pp. 1-4
3 Heck, M.J.R.; Bente, A.J.M.; Barbarin, Y.;
Lenstra, D.; Smit, M.K.; Monolithic
Semiconductor Waveguide Device Concept for
Picosecond Pulse Amplification, Isolation, and
Spectral Shaping, IEEE Journal of Quantum
Electronics, Volume 43, Issue 10, Page(s):
910 – 922, 2007
4 Augustin, L.M., van der Tol, J.J.G.M., Hanfoug, R.,
de Laat, W.J.M., van de Moosdijk, M.J.E., van Dijk,
P.W.L., Oei, Y.S., Smit, M.K., A single etch-step
fabrication-tolerant polarization splitter, Journal
of Lightwave Technology, Vol 25, Issue 3, pp 740
-746, 2007
5 Docter, B., Segawa, T., Kakitsuka, T., Matsuo,
S., Ishii, T., Kawaguchi, Y., Kondo, Y., Suzuki,
H., Karouta, F., Smit, M.K., Short Cavity DBR Laser
Using Vertical Groove Gratings for Large-Scale
Photonic Integrated Circuits, IEEE Photonics
Technology Letters, volume: 19, issue: 19,
startpage: 1469, 2007
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