High-performance mode-locked lasers on silicon

In this paper we review our recent progress on high performance mode locked InAs quantum dot lasers that are directly grown on CMOS compatible silicon substrates by solid-source molecular beam epitaxy. Different mode locking configurations are designed and fabricated. The lasers operate within the O-band wavelength range, showing pulsewidth down to 490 fs, RF linewidth down to 400 Hz, and pulse-to-pulse timing jitter down to 6 fs. When the laser is used as a comb source for wavelength division multiplexing transmission systems, 4.1 terabit per second transmission capacity was achieved. Self-mode locking is also investigated both experimentally and theoretically. The demonstrated performance makes those lasers promising light source candidates for future large-scale silicon electronic and photonic integrated circuits (EPICs) with multiple functionalities.