Dielectric waveguide amplifiers and lasers

The performance of semiconductor amplifiers and lasers has made them the preferred choice for optical gain on a micro-chip. In the past few years, we have demonstrated that also rare-earth-ion-doped dielectric waveguides show remarkable performance, ranging from a small-signal gain per unit length of 1000 dB/cm, via integrated distributed-feedback lasers with ultra-narrow linewidths in the 1-kHz range, to 1.6 W of output power from a fundamental-mode channel waveguide laser with a slope efficiency exceeding 80%. These performance parameters, combined with the distinct advantages of rare-earth ions, their long emission lifetimes, temporally and spatially stable gain, high-speed amplification into the Tb/s regime, reduced time jitter in ultrafast-pulse generation, and reasonably low heat generation, make these dielectric devices viable alternatives that can easily compete with the common semiconductor devices.