瑞士洛桑联邦理工学院Kippenberg, Tobias J.团队研究了超快可调谐光子集成扩展DBR Pockels激光器。这一研究成果发表在2025年6月5日出版的《自然—光子学》杂志上。
同时具有低噪声特性和快速无模式跳频调谐特性的频率敏捷激光器是激光雷达、分布式传感、通信和量子信息处理等应用的关键部件。混合集成激光器最近证明了比最好的传统系统（包括光纤激光器）更快的调谐和更低的相位噪声，为紧凑和可扩展的频率灵活激光器提供了新的途径。
特别是，基于自注入锁定的高Q光学微谐振器的波克尔可调谐激光器，在绝缘体上由铌酸锂制成，已经实现了达到每秒千赫兹的超快调谐速率。然而，这些激光器的影响仍然受到自注入锁定动力学的阻碍，这限制了最大调谐范围、输出功率和高操作复杂性。
研究组克服了这些限制，并展示了一种交钥匙可操作的混合集成波克尔斯激光器，其无模式跳变范围超过10GHz，调谐效率超过550mhz V-1，调谐速率达到每秒埃赫兹，输出功率高达15兆瓦。研究人员通过简洁紧凑的外部分布式布拉格反射器架构实现了混合集成激光器性能的巨大改进，该架构结合了廉价的反射半导体光放大器和在晶圆规模上制造的电光驱动分布式布拉格反射器。
外部分布式布拉格反射器Pockels激光器的出色线性和相干性，以及其前所未有的调谐带宽和范围（传统体激光器无法满足的组合），使其成为调频连续波激光雷达、分布式光纤传感和大气气体计量应用的理想候选者。该团队在一个概念验证的调频连续波激光雷达实验中展示了这种性能和灵活性，实现了4Cm距离分辨率在100Ms，以及在氰化氢光谱实验中。紧凑而坚固的Pockels激光组件采用商用蝶形封装，提高了其对环境噪声的弹性，并显示出长期稳定性，自由运行的激光器频率波动低于25MHz超过2.5 h。
附：英文原文
Title: Ultrafast tunable photonic-integrated extended-DBR Pockels laser
Author: Siddharth, Anat, Bianconi, Simone, Wang, Rui Ning, Qiu, Zheru, Voloshin, Andrey S., Bereyhi, Mohammad J., Riemensberger, Johann, Kippenberg, Tobias J.
Issue&Volume: 2025-06-05
Abstract: Frequency-agile lasers that can simultaneously feature low noise characteristics and fast mode-hop-free frequency tuning are keystone components for applications ranging from LiDAR and distributed sensing to communication and quantum information processing. Hybrid integrated lasers have recently demonstrated faster tuning and lower phase noise than the best legacy systems, including fibre lasers, offering new avenues for compact and scalable frequency-agile lasers. In particular, Pockels-tunable lasers based on self-injection locking to high-Q optical microresonators fabricated from lithium niobate on insulator have achieved ultrafast tuning rates reaching the petahertz per second. However, the impact of these lasers is still hampered by the dynamics of self-injection locking, which limits the maximum tuning range, output power and dictates high operational complexity. Here we overcome these limitations and demonstrate a turn-key-operable hybrid integrated Pockels laser featuring a mode-hop-free tuning range of over 10GHz, a tuning efficiency of over 550MHzV–1, tuning rates reaching the exahertz per second and a high output power of 15mW. We achieve this drastic improvement of hybrid integrated laser performance with an elegant and compact external distributed Bragg reflector architecture that combines an inexpensive reflective semiconductor optical amplifier with an electro-optically-actuated distributed Bragg reflector manufactured at the wafer scale. The excellent linearity and coherence of the external distributed Bragg reflector Pockels laser, together with its unprecedented tuning bandwidth and range—a combination unmet by legacy bulk lasers—make it an ideal candidate for applications in frequency-modulated continuous-wave LiDAR, distributed fibre sensing and atmospheric gas metrology. We demonstrate this performance and flexibility in a proof-of-concept frequency-modulated continuous-wave LiDAR experiment, achieving a 4cm distance resolution over a 20,000 voxel acquisition in 100ms, as well as in a hydrogen cyanide spectroscopy experiment. The compact and rugged Pockels laser assembly has been packaged in a commercial butterfly package, improving its resilience to environmental noise and demonstrating long-term stability with a frequency fluctuation of the free-running laser of below 25MHz over 2.5h.
DOI: 10.1038/s41566-025-01687-0
Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41566-025-01687-0