Integration of a laser diode with a polymer-based waveguide for photonic integrated circuits

The fabrication and characterization of BRS lasers monolithically integrated with butt-coupled polymer-based buried strip waveguides is presented. Threshold currents of lasers with one cleaved and one etched mirror facets are 15-18 mA and waveguide output powers are in excess of 5 mW at 100 mA laser driving currents and for 600 μm long waveguides. The device exhibits a total waveguide insertion loss less than 5 dB. The integrated device is potentially suitable as a building-block for photonic integrated circuits.