Gaafar Mahmoud A, Ludwig Markus, Wang Kai, Wildi Thibault, Voumard Thibault, Sinobad Milan, Lorenzen Jan, Francis Henry, Carreira Jose, Zhang Shuangyou, Bi Toby, Del'Haye Pascal, Geiselmann Michael, Singh Neetesh, Kärtner Franz X, Garcia-Blanco Sonia M, Herr Tobias
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY, Notkestr. 85, 22607, Hamburg, Germany.
Integrated Optical Systems, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, 7500AE, Enschede, The Netherlands.
Nat Commun. 2024 Sep 16;15(1):8109. doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-52057-3.
Femtosecond laser pulses enable the synthesis of light across the electromagnetic spectrum and provide access to ultrafast phenomena in physics, biology, and chemistry. Chip-integration of femtosecond technology could revolutionize applications such as point-of-care diagnostics, bio-medical imaging, portable chemical sensing, or autonomous navigation. However, current chip-integrated pulse sources lack the required peak power, and on-chip amplification of femtosecond pulses has been an unresolved challenge. Here, addressing this challenge, we report >50-fold amplification of 1 GHz-repetition-rate chirped femtosecond pulses in a CMOS-compatible photonic chip to 800 W peak power with 116 fs pulse duration. This power level is 2-3 orders of magnitude higher compared to those in previously demonstrated on-chip pulse sources and can provide the power needed to address key applications. To achieve this, detrimental nonlinear effects are mitigated through all-normal dispersion, large mode-area and rare-earth-doped gain waveguides. These results offer a pathway to chip-integrated femtosecond technology with peak power levels characteristic of table-top sources.
飞秒激光脉冲能够合成跨越电磁光谱的光，并能实现对物理、生物和化学领域中超快现象的研究。飞秒技术的芯片集成可能会彻底改变诸如即时诊断、生物医学成像、便携式化学传感或自主导航等应用。然而，目前的芯片集成脉冲源缺乏所需的峰值功率，飞秒脉冲的片上放大一直是一个未解决的挑战。在此，为应对这一挑战，我们报告了在一个与CMOS兼容的光子芯片中，将1 GHz重复频率的啁啾飞秒脉冲放大50倍以上，达到800 W的峰值功率，脉冲持续时间为116 fs。与之前展示的片上脉冲源相比，这个功率水平高出2 - 3个数量级，并且能够为关键应用提供所需的功率。为实现这一点，通过全正色散、大模面积和稀土掺杂增益波导减轻了有害的非线性效应。这些结果为具有桌面光源特征峰值功率水平的芯片集成飞秒技术提供了一条途径。
