Monolithic erbium- and ytterbium-doped microring lasers on silicon chips

We demonstrate monolithic 160-µm-diameter rare-earth-doped microring lasers using silicon-compatible methods. Pump light injection and laser output coupling are achieved via an integrated silicon nitride waveguide. We measure internal quality factors of up to 3.8 × 105 at 980 nm and 5.7 × 105 at 1550 nm in undoped microrings. In erbium- and ytterbium-doped microrings we observe single-mode 1.5-µm and 1.0-µm laser emission with slope efficiencies of 0.3 and 8.4%, respectively. Their small footprints, tens of microwatts output powers and sub-milliwatt thresholds introduce such rare-earth-doped microlasers as scalable light sources for silicon-based microphotonic devices and systems.