SEMINAR REPORT on

Photonic Micromachined Tunable laser

Submitted by ARYA. K. R.

In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Technology in

ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING of COCHIN UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

NOVEMBER 2011

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

Toc H INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY Arakkunnam P.O, Ernakulam District, KERALA 682 313

Toc H INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY

Arakkunnam P.O, Ernakulam District, Kerala 682 313.

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the seminar entitled Photonic Micromachined Tunable Laser by Arya.K.R. of semester VII is a bonafide account of the work done by her under our supervision during the academic year 2011 - 2012.

Seminar Guide

Head of the Department

Head of the Institution

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The satisfaction and euphoria of successful completion of any task would be incomplete without the mention of the people who made it possible through their constant guidance and encouragement. First and foremost I would like to express my gratitude to the invisible, the indomitable God for his blessings without which I would not have been able to complete my work on time. I would like to extend my heartiest thanks to the management for extending a generous hand in providing the best of resources to the college I would like to express my deep gratitude to Prof (Dr). V. Job Kuruvilla, our Director, who has been a source of motivation to all the staffs and students of our college. I am also thankful to Dr.Justus Rabi, our Principal and to Prof (Col.) P. M. Xavier, our Dean (Student & Academic Affairs) for their co-operation and support. I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to Asso. Prof. Deepa Elizabeth George (H.O.D, ECE) for the inspiration inculcated in us and for the apt guidance. It would be a grave error if I forget to make a mention of our seminar coordinators Asst. Prof. Dhanya.S, Asst. Prof. Deepa Mary Varghese and Asst. Prof. Lenin Joseph (Faculty members, Dept. of ECE) and our class in charges Ms.Sajitha.K.S (Lecturer, ECE) and Asst. Prof. Emil Thomas (Dept. of ECE) whose constant persistence and support helped me in the completion of this seminar report. Last, but not the least, I take this opportunity to thank all the faculty members, Lab instructors & other staff members of the Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering. I would like to extend my heartiest thanks also to my parents, family members, classmates and friends who offered an unflinching moral support for the completion of this effort.

ABSTRACT

Over the past decade, tremendous efforts have been devoted to the design and development of tunable lasers. To provide an access to laser sources with the precise emission wavelengths required by the system becomes a great challenge to set up any Wavelength Division Multiplexed (WDM) network. Therefore, MEMS tunable lasers will support a broadband communication system that will replace current fixed-wavelength or narrowband semiconductor tunable lasers. This paper covers design, fabrication, packaging and experiments of photonic Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) tunable laser sources. Two different types of MEMS tunable lasers, which are MEMS coupledcavity lasers and dual-wavelength tunable lasers, are demonstrated as examples of natural synergy of MEMS with photonics. The expansion and penetration of the MEMS technology to silicon nano-photonics creates on-chip optical systems at an unprecedented scale of integration. While producing better integration, robustness and compactness, MEMS improves the functionalities and specifications of laser devices. Additionally, MEMS photonic tunable lasers are able to deliver their merits of small size, fast tuning speed, wide tuning range and CMOS compatible integration which broaden their applications to many fields.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

SL NO:

TITLE
LIST OF FIGURES LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

PAGE NO:

1 1.1 1.1.1 1.2 1.3

INTRODUCTION MEMS MEMS MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES SEMICONDUCTOR TUNABLE LASER COMPARISON BETWEEN MEMS TUNABLE LASER AND SEMICONDUCTOR TUNABLE LASER

1 2 3 4 4

1.4 1.5 2 2.1 2.2 2.3 3 3.1 3.1.1 3.2 3.3 4 4.1 4.2

SINGLE MODE SUPPRESSION RATIO WAVELENGTH DIVISION MULTIPLEXING MEMS COUPLED CAVITY LASER CONSTRUCTION EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS FEATURES MEMS DUAL WAVELENGTH LASER CONSTRUCTION DIFFRACTION AND DIFFRACTION GRATING EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS FEATURES CONCLUSION APPLICATION FUTURE SCOPE

5 5 6 6 8 11 13 13 15 16 19 20 20 21

LIST OF FIGURES

SL NO:

FIGURE NAME

PAGE NO:

2.1 2.1.1

SEM of MEMS coupled-cavity laser Structural design of the MEMS coupled- cavity laser using a parabolic mirror for optical coupling and cavity length adjustment

6 7

2.2.1

Output spectra of the coupled- cavity laser for different gap selections

2.2.2 2.2.3

Characteristics of wavelength tuning The measured actuation relationship and coupling efficiency change

10 11

3.1 3.1.1 3.2.1 3.2.2 3.2.3 3.2.4 3.2.5

SEM of the MEMS dual-wavelength laser Schematic diagram of the tunable MEMS dualwavelength laser Wavelength tuning and the spectral separation versus the rotation of the mirror 2 Variation of rotation angle with the driving voltage Superimposed spectra of the tunable wavelength Spectrum of the dual-wavelength output Wavelength tuning verses the rotation angle of mirror

13 14 16 17 17 18 19

LIST OF SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS

MEMS SOI SMSR WDM CCL DRIE

Wavelength Diffraction Angle Microelectromechanical System Silicon-on-insulator Single Mode Suppression Ratio Wavelength Division Multiplexing Coupled-Cavity Laser Deep-Reactive ion Etching

Photonic Micromachined Tunable Laser

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
Tunable diode laser has been extensively applied in a wide range of areas. In particular, it is the enabler of novel network architectures for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) systems, such as passive optical networks, packet switching networks etc. Such new applications require a wide tuning range and a fast tuning speed in the nano-second level. Many of the developed tunable lasers only meet one requirement. In addition, monolithic sources are especially desirable for compactness, mechanical stabilities and integratability with other systems. For these reasons, MEMS tunable laser sources have attracted renewed interests since they have the potential to meet all these requirements. Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) tunable laser sources are natural synergy of MEMS with photonics. Two different types of MEMS tunable lasers, which are MEMS coupled-cavity lasers and dual-wavelength tunable lasers, are reported. The expansion and penetration of the MEMS technology to silicon nano-photonics creates on-chip optical systems at an unprecedented scale of integration. While producing better integration, robustness and compactness, MEMS improves the functionalities and specifications of laser devices. The introduction of MEMS has endowed two special features to tunable lasers: One is that MEMS facilitates external cavities at very short (<100 m) and even extremely short length (<10 m), leading to unusual tuning behaviors and different design concerns. The other is that the photolithography of the MEMS process makes it possible to fabricate gratings/mirrors in arbitrary profiles, which may inspire the innovation of new laser configurations that can only be realized by MEMS technology. MEMS fabrication process also makes use of photolithography and other batch processes, so as to enjoy the advantages of high accuracy (~ 0.1m), fast response (~ 1 ms) , small volume (~ 1 mm3), lightweight (~ 10 g), single-chip integration, easy IC integration and low cost implementation. This is particularly true when the technology

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platform is compared with traditional systems making use of only discrete component systems, which are typically bulky, expensive and of lower performance.

1.1 MEMS
Microelectromechanical electromechanical, systems (MEMS) or (also written as micro and MicroElectroMechanical microelectronic

microelectromechanical systems) is the technology of very small mechanical devices driven by electricity; it merges at the nano-scale into nanoelectromechanical systems (NEMS) and nanotechnology. MEMS are also referred to as micromachines (in Japan), or micro systems technology - MST (in Europe). MEMS are made up of components between 1 to 100 micrometers in size (i.e. 0.001 to 0.1 mm) and MEMS devices generally range in size from 20 micrometers (20 millionths of a meter) to a millimeter. They usually consist of a central unit that processes data, the microprocessor and several components that interact with the outside such as micro sensors. At these size scales, the standard constructs of classical physics are not always useful. Because of the large surface area to volume ratio of MEMS, surface effects such as electrostatics and wetting dominate volume effects such as inertia or thermal mass. Silicon, polymers and metals are used for materials for MEMS. The economies of scale, ready availability of cheap high-quality materials and ability to incorporate electronic functionality make silicon attractive for a wide variety of MEMS applications. Silicon also has significant advantages engendered through its material properties. In single crystal form, silicon is an almost perfect Hookean material, meaning that when it is flexed there is virtually no hysteresis and hence almost no energy dissipation. As well as making for highly repeatable motion, this also makes silicon very reliable as it suffers very little fatigue and can have service lifetimes in the range of billions to trillions of cycles without breaking. The basic techniques for producing all silicon based MEMS devices are deposition of material layers, patterning of these layers by photolithography and then etching to produce the required shapes. Even though the electronics industry provides an economy of scale for the silicon industry, crystalline silicon is still a complex and relatively expensive material to produce.

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Polymers on the other hand can be produced in huge volumes, with a great variety of material characteristics. MEMS devices can be made from polymers by processes such as injection molding, embossing or stereo lithography and are especially well suited to micro fluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridges. MEMS devices can be made from polymers by processes such as injection molding, embossing or stereolithography and are especially well suited to microfluidic applications such as disposable blood testing cartridges. Metals can also be used to create MEMS elements. While metals do not have some of the advantages displayed by silicon in terms of mechanical properties, when used within their limitations, metals can exhibit very high degrees of reliability. Metals can be deposited by electroplating, evaporation, and sputtering processes. Commonly used metals include gold, nickel, aluminium, copper, chromium, titanium, tungsten, platinum, and silver. 1.1.1 MEMS MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGIES The commonly and used High technologies aspect ratio are (HAR) Bulk micromachining, Surface Bulk

micromachining

silicon

micromachining.

micromachining is the oldest paradigm of silicon based MEMS. The whole thickness of a silicon wafer is used for building the micro-mechanical structures. Silicon is machined using various etching processes. Anodic bonding of glass plates or additional silicon wafers is used for adding features in the third dimension and for hermetic encapsulation. Bulk micromachining has been essential in enabling high performance pressure sensors and accelerometers that have changed the shape of the sensor industry in the 80's and 90's. Surface micromachining uses layers deposited on the surface of a substrate as the structural materials, rather than using the substrate itself. Surface micromachining was created in the late 1980s to render micromachining of silicon more compatible with planar integrated circuit technology, with the goal of combining MEMS and integrated circuits on the same silicon wafer. The original surface micromachining concept was based on thin polycrystalline silicon layers patterned as movable mechanical structures and released by sacrificial etching of the underlying oxide layer. A new etching technology, deep reactive-ion etching, has made it possible to combine good performance typical of bulk micromachining with comb structures and inDepartment of Electronics and Communication Engineering, TIST 3

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plane operation typical of surface micromachining. While it is common in surface micromachining to have structural layer thickness in the range of 2 m, in HAR silicon micromachining the thickness can be from 10 to 100 m. The materials commonly used in HAR silicon micromachining are thick polycrystalline silicon, known as epi-poly, and bonded silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers although processes for bulk silicon wafer also have been created. Bonding a second wafer by glass frit bonding, anodic bonding or alloy bonding is used to protect the MEMS structures.

1.2 SEMICONDUCTOR TUNABLE LASER

A tunable laser is a laser whose wavelength of operation can be altered in a controlled manner. While all laser gain media allow small shifts in output wavelength, only a few types of lasers allow continuous tuning over a significant wavelength range. There are many types and categories of tunable lasers. They exist in the gas, liquid, and solid state. Among the types of tunable lasers are excimer lasers, CO2 lasers, dye lasers (liquid and solid state), transition metal solid-state lasers, semiconductor crystal and diode lasers, and free electron lasers. Tunable lasers find applications in spectroscopy, photochemistry, atomic vapor laser isotope separation, and optical communications.

1.3

COMPARISON

BETWEEN

MEMS

TUNABLE

LASER

AND

SEMICONDUCTOR TUNABLE LASER

MEMS tunable lasers have many superior characteristics than typical semiconductor lasers. Some of them are listed below: They produce better integration, robustness ad compactness. They improve the functionalities and specifications of laser devices. They are small in size. They are mechanically stable than traditional semiconductor tunable lasers. They have fast tuning speed, wide tuning range and CMOS compactable integration. They will support a broadband communication system that will replace the current fixed-wavelength or narrowband semiconductor lasers.
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MEMS technology facilitates the integration of laser chips with other optical and electronic components onto a single chip.

1.4 SINGLE MODE SUPRESSION RATIO (SMSR)

An expression of the quality of a single mode laser based on the difference in amplitude between the main spectral mode to the most dominant side mode. It is preferably high for a good tunable laser source.

1.5 WAVELENGTH DIVISION MUTIPLEXING (WDM)

Wavelength division multiplexing is the process of different channels being encoded on different wavelengths and being sent through the same fiber. This method is employed for easy channel provision. This increases the bandwidth even further.

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Photonic Micromachined Tunable Laser

CHAPTER 2 MEMS COUPLED CAVITY LASER

MEMS coupled-cavity laser (CCL) is one of the new approaches to the MEMS tunable laser. It is formed by coupling two or more laser cavities, which can be fabricated by etching a narrow groove inside a cleaved single chip or by employing cleaved-coupled-cavity structures. A CCL commonly consists of two or more optically coupled but electrically isolated cavities, which are separated by narrow air gaps. MEMS technology provides a great reduction in packaging cost and size, with increased reliability and lower power dissipation. The MEMS part is for the initial phase match while the electrical injection is for the wavelength tuning. Therefore, the proposed laser could realize single chip integration while circumventing the speed limit of mechanical response.

Fig.2.1 Scanning electron micrographs (SEM) of the coupled-cavity laser

2.1 CONSTRUCTION
The design of CCL consists of two Fabry-Perot laser chips, which are optically coupled by a movable parabolic mirror but electrically independent. CCL employs a deep-etched parabolic mirror to adjust the gap of the CCL for optimal phase match. In experiment, such mirror measures an initial coupling efficiency of 70.5% and a low
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variation (<5 %) of the efficiency even when the mirror is translated by 20 m, which is ideal for the CCL to change the cavity length (i.e., phase condition) without deteriorating the optical coupling. Stable single-mode laser output over 6.5 nm is demonstrated. Compared with the traditional CCLs that have fixed air gap, this design offers an additional degree of freedom to adjust the CCL to its optimal tuning state. It is worth noting that one of the chips (i.e. the lasing chip) is driven above the threshold to emit the light, while the other (i.e. the tuning chip/modulator) is always driven below the threshold. It is fabricated using deep reactive- ion-etching on a siliconon-insulator wafer with a 75-um-thick structural layer. To improve the reflectivity of the mirror, shadow mask technology is employed to selectively coat an aluminum layer on the reflected mirror surface. Laser chip provides optical gain and a curved mirror provides wavelength tuning. It is challenging to design an actively adjustable cavity gap that gives a large tuning range.

Fig.2.1.1 Structural design of the MEMS coupled cavity laser using a parabolic mirror for optical coupling and cavity length adjustment

Deep reactive-ion etching (DRIE) is a highly anisotropic etch process used to create deep penetration, steep-sided holes and trenches in wafers, with aspect ratios of 20:1 or more. It was developed for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), which require these features, but is also used to excavate trenches for high-density capacitors
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for DRAM and more recently for creating through wafer via's (TSV)'s in advanced 3D wafer level packaging technology . In a recent work, a 3-dimensional (3D) optical coupling system is introduced to improve the optical coupling in the external cavity. It makes use of an optical fiber as the rod lens to collimate the light in the vertical plane and a curved mirror in the horizontal plane. This is the first realization of 3D coupling in single-chip MEMS lasers. With such 3D system, the tunable laser has obtained an efficiency of 47% and a tuning range of 53.2 nm, significantly higher than the typical values of 8% and 10 nm, making it possible for many advanced applications. Successive work has focused on new designs to improve the coupling efficiency and the wavelength tuning range.

2.2 EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

In the experiment, it is observed that the single chip operates in a multilongitudinal-mode regime. After the two chips are assembled onto the MEMS substrate to form the micromachined CCL, the output spectrum is then characterized. During the experiment, the lasing current is kept constant at 14.1 mA while the tuning current is varied. The optimal cavity gap d0 is experimentally determined by moving the parabolic mirror back and forth while monitoring the output spectrum until a single longitudinalmode output is obtained. It is seen that as the cavity gap increases the chip shifts its mode from single to multimode. The tuning current is not varied, only the cavity gap is increased to shift the mode. Instead of getting a single peak, a series of peaks are obtained which is actually undesirable. Such an unsuitable gap only allows the two chips work independently instead of affecting each other, even though they are optically coupled. It proves that the gap between the two chips is the dominant factor for the modes matching and wavelength selection. It is also observed that the SMSR of the single mode output of the micromachined CCL (~ 24.5 dB) is higher than the peak value (~ 17 dB) of the single chip as predicted by the analysis. In addition, while the single longitudinal mode is maintained as SMSR > 19.0 dB, the wide wavelength tuning range can reach 51.3 nm.. When the gap of the external cavity is adjusted, the mode selectivity and output stability are improved. Furthermore, the speed of the wavelength switching is estimated to reach the level of nanosecond based on the free carrier plasma effect.
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Fig.2.2.1 Output spectra of the coupled cavity laser for different gap selections. (a) Multimode output at d < d0 (b) single-mode output in the optimal state d = d0 (c) multimode again at d > d0

MEMS technology does not only offer high compactness and fine position adjustment, but also facilitates the integration of laser chips with other optical and electronic components onto a single-chip, making the micromachined CCLs promising for many applications. During the fabrication, all the MEMS structures, including the micromirror, comb-drive actuator, are defined by a single photolithographic step and then etched into the wafer. The movable parts are released by dry method. To improve the reflectivity of the mirror, shadow mask technology is employed to selectively coat an aluminum layer (with a thickness of 0.4 m) on the reflected mirror surface. After the MEMS fabrication, the laser chips (with one of facets has antireflection coated, R < 0.2 %), a rod lens and the detection fiber are integrated. Benefited from the process, the profile of the parabolic mirror is maintained after the fabrication. To further reduce the optical loss between the chips, such as the beam divergence in the vertical direction, a rod lens is introduced by use of a section of the common single mode optical fibre.

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The output spectrum is given in Fig.2.2.2 (a) and wavelength tuning is illustrated by Fig.2.2.2 (b).

Fig.2.2.2 Characteristics of wavelength tuning (a) Spectral output at different tuning currents (b) Wavelength shift corresponding to different current

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Photonic Micromachined Tunable Laser

The movement of the mirror is generated by an electrostatic comb-drive actuator. The measured actuation curve is plotted in Fig.2.2.3. No significant movement is observed when the driving voltage is smaller than 5 volts. Then the displacement is increased steadily with higher voltage, and it goes to 29.4 m at 30 V. The coupling efficiency is also plotted in Fig.2.5. The coupling is maintained at the level around 70.5% over the 29.4 m mirror displacement, with the variation less than 5%.

Fig.2.2.3 The measured actuation relationship and coupling efficiency change

2.3 FEATURES
MEMS CCLs have exhibited the advantages of simplicity, high side mode suppression and stable single longitudinal- mode output. In a tuning mode, by varying the current flowing through one of the cavities, its effective refractive index is altered. As a result, the optical cavity length is changed and the total mode comb is subsequently modified. Finally, the output wavelength is tuned. Such electrical tuning yields a fast tuning speed at the nano-second level. Wide tuning range which can reach up to 51.3nm if SMSR is maintained greater than 19.0dB. SMSR of the single mode output of the micromachined CCL (~ 24.5 dB) is higher than the peak value (~ 17 dB) of the single chip.
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The measured output power is approximately -10dBm.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology provides a great reduction in packaging cost and size, with increased reliability and lower power dissipation. However, most of the developed MEMS lasers obtain the wavelength tuning by mechanical movement of the MEMS reflectors (mirrors or gratings), and thus have the tuning speed limited by the mechanical response speed to about 1 ms. As the wavelength tuning is obtained by injecting electrical current, the tuning speed is no longer limited by the mechanical speed of MEMS and thus can achieve a tuning speed at the nanosecond level.

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CHAPTER 3 MEMS DUAL WAVELENGTH LASER

Dual-wavelength tunable laser is a key device for wide range of applications such as optical recording, wavelength division multiplexing and optical instruments etc. Dualwavelength laser, simultaneously achieves wide tuning range and two-longitudinal-mode emission. Such single-chip solution may offer a potential to reduce the packaging cost, while support better performances.

Fig.3.1 Scanning electron micrograph (SEM) of the MEMS dual-wavelength laser

3.1 CONSTRUCTION
The construction of this laser is based on Littman external cavity configuration. The key point is to use two micro-mirrors to select two different wavelengths at their independent diffraction modes, and the emission of both wavelengths will be collected through the 0th order of the grating. Meanwhile, wavelength tuning is achieved by rotating one of the mirrors. As a result, a tunable spectral separation of dual-wavelength output is obtained. The external grating cavities are formed by the antireflection (AR) coated facet of the gain chip, a collimating lens, a grating element and two mirrors. The two mirrors are used to select two individual resonance wavelengths of the cavities. Light from the facet (AR) is collimated before striking a grating element. Since the light

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of different wavelengths are diffracted at different angle, the diffraction grating serves as an optical filter in the cavity. In this Littman configuration, there is a double pass through a reflection grating via a further external mirror. That is, a beam at certain diffraction angle (associated with the desired output wavelength) is retro-reflected by a mirror, sending the light back to the diode for oscillation at that particular wavelength in the cavity. Because there are two mirrors located at the positions corresponding to different diffraction angles, such laser configuration supports a simultaneous dual-wavelength output. The grating diffracts different wavelengths to different directions, and the mirrors (mirror 1 & mirror 2) are used to select two individual wavelengths (1 and 2) in the cavities.

Fig.3.1.1 Schematic diagram of the tunable dual wavelength MEMS laser (a) Laser configuration (b) rotation of the mirror 2

The 0-th order diffraction of the grating is coupled as the output, which contains both 1 and 2. Based on the laser cavity resonance and the grating diffraction conditions the spectral separation (= 2 1) is expressed as: = p0 [(sin2/m2)-(sin1/m1)]
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Where p0 is the grating period, m1 and m2 are the diffraction orders, and 1 and 2 are the diffraction angles. In our design, 1 and 2 are +1 order and -1 order diffraction angle, respectively. In order to achieve wavelength tuning, one of the mirrors (mirror 2) is designed to be rotatable. Thus, the wavelength shifting can be achieved, as determined by: d= pcos . d The spectral separation of the two modes can be tuned to different levels, which is obtained by rotating the mirror 2 with respect to a fixed pivot (Fig.3.1.1b). It should be noted that the rotation of the mirror 2 only affects one of the wavelength (2), while the other wavelength (1) is kept constant. 3.1.1 DIFFRACTION AND DIFFRACTION GRATING Diffraction refers to various phenomena which occur when a wave encounters an obstacle. In classical physics, the diffraction phenomenon is described as the apparent bending of waves around small obstacles and the spreading out of waves past small openings. Similar effects occur when light waves travel through a medium with a varying refractive index or a sound wave through one with varying acoustic impedance. Diffraction occurs with all waves, including sound waves, water waves, and electromagnetic waves such as visible light, x-rays and radio waves. In optics, a diffraction grating is an optical component with a periodic structure, which splits and diffracts light into several beams travelling in different directions. The directions of these beams depend on the spacing of the grating and the wavelength of the light so that the grating acts as the dispersive element. The relationship between the grating spacing and the angles of the incident and diffracted beams of light is known as the grating equation. According to the HuygensFresnel principle, each point on the wave front of a propagating wave can be considered to act as a point source, and the wave front at any subsequent point can be found by adding together the contributions from each of these individual point sources. An idealized grating is considered which is made up of a set of long and infinitely narrow slits of spacing d. When a plane wave of wavelength is incident normally on the grating, each slit in the grating acts as a point source propagating in all directions. The light in a particular direction, , is made up of the interfering components from each
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slit. Generally, the phases of the waves from different slits will vary from one another, and will cancel one another out partially or wholly. However, when the path difference between the light from adjacent slits is equal to the wavelength, , the waves will all be in phase. This occurs at angles m which satisfy the relationship dsinm/=|m| where d is the separation of the slits and m is an integer. Thus, the diffracted light will have maxima at angles m given by

If a plane wave is incident at an angle i, the grating equation becomes

3.2 EXPERIMENTAL OBSERVATIONS

The wavelength tuning is demonstrated by rotating the micro mirror. With one wavelength being tuned and the other fixed, the laser output presents a tunable spectral separation from -28.38 to +24.18 nm. The laser output reaches 2.9 mW with far-field divergences of 37 and 30 in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Besides, line broadening is observed with the reduction of the spectral separation .

Fig.3.2.1 Wavelength tuning and the spectral separation versus the rotation of the mirror 2

In the experiment, simultaneous two wavelength emissions are observed in the output. An output power of 2.9 mW is obtained when the driving current of 30 mA is applied on the gain chip. Higher output power of up to 10 mW can be achieved with a higher driving current (e.g., 80 mA), provided a thermoelectric cooler employed to
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stabilize the MEMS laser operating at 25 C. For the rotation of mirror 2 ,a potential is applied to the comb-drive, and the electrostatic force is produced between the moving fingers and the fixed ones which generates an electrostatic torque. The lengths of the individual combs have been optimally adjusted. Fig.3.2.2. shows that the rotation angle of the mirror is increased with higher driving voltage.

Fig.3.2.2 Variation of rotation angle with the driving voltage

As the voltage goes from 6 V to 20 V, the output wavelength is increased from 1550.32 nm to 1569.36 nm. Single longitudinal mode is well maintained over the whole range, with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) greater than 30 db.

Fig.3.2.3 Superimposed spectra (2) of the tunable wavelength (with 1 = 1550 nm)

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Fig.3.2.4 Spectrum of the dual-wavelength output (a) Red-shift of 2 (b) blue-shift of 2

A simultaneous emission at two different wavelengths is obtained as shown in Fig.3.2.4. In both spectra, the tunable wavelength ( 2 ) is achieved by the rotation of mirror 2. It is noted that the powers of both wavelengths are almost the same, indicating the similar reflectivity of the two mirrors. The spectral separations between the two oscillation modes are 6.5 nm and 8.1 nm, respectively. In this case, the fixed wavelength ( 1) is set at about 1550 nm, stabilized by mirror 1, while a tunable wavelength ( 2) is provided by mirror 2. The wavelength tuning is shown in Fig.3.2.5, where 2 has a maximum tuning range of more than 50 nm, corresponding to the rotation of mirror 2. It also shows that the tunable wavelength is almost linearly decreased with the increase in the rotation angle. The simultaneous emission at two different wavelengths is also shown in the inset.

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Fig. 3.2.5 Wavelength tuning (2) verses the rotation angle of mirror 2 (movable mirror)

3.3 FEATURES
A tunable multiwavelength laser source is of interest for many applications in science and engineering, including wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM), differential absorption lidars, two wavelength interferometers, optical data storage, and so on. The underlying advantage of this design is that semiconductor lasers have a number of interesting characteristics for dual-wavelength emission, including large tuning range and high gain. It is a key device for wide range of applications such as optical recording, wavelength division multiplexing and optical instruments etc. Simultaneous two wavelength emissions are obtained. An output power of 10mW is obtained on applying a driving current of 30mA. Maximum tuning range of more than 50 nm.

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CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION
Two different MEMS tunable lasers are reported such as MEMS coupled-cavity lasers, and dual-wavelength lasers. The MEMS tunable lasers achieve great improvement in high tuning speed, large tuning range and mechanically stability as compared with the traditional semiconductor tunable lasers. They have the advantages of high accuracy (~ 0.1m), fast response (~ 1 ms), small volume (~ 1mm 3), lightweight (~ 10 g), single-chip integration, easy IC integration and low cost implementation. A tunable dual-wavelength laser is made by integration of a semiconductor gain chip with silicon-micromachined grating and mirrors onto a silicon substrate. The wavelength tuning is demonstrated by rotating the micromirror. With one wavelength being tuned and the other fixed, the laser output presents a tunable spectral separation from 28.38to+24.18nm. The laser output reaches 2.9mW with far-field divergences of 37 and 30 in the vertical and horizontal directions, respectively. Besides, line broadening is observed with the reduction of the spectral separation. A miniature tunable coupled-cavity laser is made by integrating a Fabry-Prot chip, a gain chip and a deep-etched parabolic mirror using micromachining technology. The mirror is to actively adjust the gap between chips, enabling the optimal mode selection. Single-mode operation with a tuning range of 16.55nm and a side-modesuppression ratio of >25.1dB is demonstrated. The device overcomes phase mismatching and instability problems encountered in conventional fixed-gap coupledcavity lasers.

4.1 APPLICATIONS
MEMS-based products offer substantial cost and performance advantages for optical networking applications in the area of switching fabrics, variable attenuators, tunable lasers, and other devices. It is a key device for optical recording, wavelength division multiplexing, optical instruments etc.
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It have potential applications in optical networks, two wavelength interferometers and differential lidar systems, and so on.

4.2 FUTURE SCOPE

It has been proven that the MEMS tunable laser sources offer significant advantages and the fusion of MEMS tunability and photonic principles is expected to open up new opportunities for developing the next generation devices for applications of telecommunications and biophotonic medical instruments. The fusion of MEMS tenability and photonic principles is opening up new chances for developing next-generation devices for not only laser applications but also cell studies. The explosion of the Internet has brought about an acute need for broadband communications, which can only be filled with optical networking. This in turn has resulted in an unprecedented interest in optical micro-electromechanical systems. Since the early days of fiber optics, it has been recognized that micro-optics was a fertile ground for the applications of MEMS.

Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering, TIST 21

REFERENCES
[1] Cai H, Liu B, Zhang X M, Liu A Q, Bourouina T, Zhang Q X. A micromachined tunable coupled-cavity laser for wide tuning range and high spectral purity, Optics Express, vol. 16, no. 21, 2008:16670-16679. [2] Liu A Q. Photonic MEMS Devices- Design, Fabrication and control, Taylor and Francis, 2008. [3] Zhang X M, Cai H, Lu C, Chen C K, Liu A Q. Design and experiment of 3-dimensional microoptical system for MEMS tunable lasers, Proc. MEMS 2006, 22-26 Jan. 2006, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 830-883, paper MP45. [4] Cai H, Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Tamil J, Tang D Y, Wu J, Zhang Q X. Tunable dualwavelength laser constructed by silicon micromachining, Appl. Phys Lett. vol. 92, no.05, 051113, 2008. [5] Li J, Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Zhong T. Light switching via thermo-optic effect of micromachined silicon prism, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 88, no. 24, 243501, 2006. [6] Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Murukeshan V M, Lam Y L. A novel device level micromachined tunable laser using polysilicon 3D mirror, IEEE Photo. Tech. Lett. vol. 13, 2001: 427429.

APPENDIX

5-7 May, Seville, Spain

Photonic Micromachined Tunable Lasers

A. Q. Liu
School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering 50 Nanyang Avenue, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798 Tel: +65 6790-4336; Fax: +65 6793-3318; Email: eaqliu@ntu.edu.sg PRESENTATION: Oral Presentation
Abstract-This paper covers design, fabrication, packaging

and experiments of photonic Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) tunable laser sources. Two different types of MEMS tunable lasers, which are MEMS coupled-cavity lasers and dual-wavelength tunable lasers, are demonstrated as examples of natural synergy of MEMS with photonics. The expansion and penetration of the MEMS technology to silicon nano-photonics creates on-chip optical systems at an unprecedented scale of integration. While producing better integration, robustness and compactness, MEMS improves the functionalities and specifications of laser devices. Additionally, MEMS photonic tunable lasers are able to deliver their merits of small size, fast tuning speed, wide tuning range and CMOS compatible integration which broaden their applications to many fields.
Keywords: MEMS, tunable laser, photonics.

technology, different types of photonic MEMS tunable laser sources, such as coupled lasers, injection locked tunable laser and duel-wavelength tunable laser have been developed for a series of new generation devices. The design, fabrication and experiments of the two different types of MEMS tunable laser sources are presented in this paper.

II.
A.

MEMS TUNABLE LASERS

MEMS coupled-cavity lasers

I.

INTRODUCTION

Over the past decade, tremendous efforts have been devoted to the design and development of tunable lasers. The applications of tunable lasers in optical networks have inspired significant research to support the perceived need for dynamic networks and wavelength reconfigurability in wavelength division multiplexing systems. One of the key current trends in optical networking is redirecting a timedivision multiplexed (TDM) trend towards wavelengthdivision multiplexed (WDM) systems. To provide an access to laser sources with the precise emission wavelengths required by the system becomes a great challenge to set up any WDM network. Therefore, MEMS tunable lasers will support a broadband communication system that will replace current fixed-wavelength or narrowband semiconductor tunable lasers. MEMS technology experiences rapid development in optical and photonic devices [1]. It provides tunable lasers [2-4] with an integration platform solution by fully utilizing the capability of MEMS tunable lasers of rapidly switching from one light wavelength to another. In so doing, it offers carriers benefits in networking efficiency through significant performance of the network flexibility and seamless scalability. Inspired by the inherent advantages of MEMS

Based on MEMS fabrication and integration technology, MEMS can provide an approach to fabricating optical components as well as substrates for integration and packaging. Recently, MEMS tunable laser research has been focused on new designs with improved wavelength tunability and other optical performances [410]. MEMS coupled-cavity laser (CCL) is one of the new approaches to the MEMS tunable laser. It is formed by coupling two or more laser cavities, which can be fabricated by etching a narrow groove inside a cleaved single chip [11] or by employing cleaved-coupled-cavity structures [12]. It consists of two Fabry-Prot (FP) laser chips, which are optically coupled by a movable MEMS parabolic mirror that is electrically independent. It is fabricated using deepreactive-ion-etching on a silicon-on-insulator wafer with a 75-um-thick structural layer. To improve the reflectivity of the mirror, shadow mask technology is employed to selectively coat an aluminum layer on the reflected mirror surface. It is challenging to design an actively adjustable cavity gap that gives a large tuning range as shown in Fig. 1 [13].

Fig. 1. SEM of the MEMS coupled-cavity laser.

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5-7 May, Seville, Spain B. MEMS dual-wavelength lasers Dual-wavelength tunable laser is a key device for wide range of applications such as optical recording, wavelength division multiplexing and optical instruments etc. MEMS dual-wavelength tunable laser is shown in Fig. 3 [14-15], which integrates a semiconductor gain chip with siliconmicromachined grating and mirrors onto a silicon chip. The external cavity is formed by an AR coated facet of the gain chip, a collimating lens, a grating element and two mirrors. The grating diffracts different wavelengths to different directions, and the mirrors (mirror 1 & mirror 2) are used to select two individual wavelengths ( 1 and 2 ) in the cavities. The 0-th order diffraction of the grating is coupled as the output, which contains both 1 and 2 . Based on the laser
Fig. 2. Comparison of the output spectra of the micromachined CCL in different states. (a) single-mode output spectrum of micromachined CCL when the cavity gap is optimal; and (b) multi-mode spectrum of the micromachined CCL when the cavity gap is not optimal (d d0).

cavity resonance and the grating diffraction conditions the spectral separation ( = 2 1 ) is expressed as:
sin 2 sin 1 = p0 m1 m2

(1)

In the experiment, it is observed that the single chip operates in a multi-longitudinal-mode regime. After the two chips are assembled onto the MEMS substrate to form the micromachined CCL, the output spectrum is then characterized (as shown in Fig. 2). During the experiment, the lasing current is kept constant at 14.1 mA while the tuning current is varied. The optimal cavity gap d0 is experimentally determined by moving the parabolic mirror back and forth while monitoring the output spectrum until a singlelongitudinal-mode output is obtained. Fig. 2(a) exemplifies the single-longitudinal-mode spectrum when the tuning current is 8.6 mA. It has = 1567.7 nm and SMSR = 24.5 dB. When the cavity gap is moved away from its optimal value, the output spectrum of the micromachined CCL becomes multilongitudinal mode again as shown in Fig. 2(b). Such an unsuitable gap only allows the two chips work independently instead of affecting each other, even though they are optically coupled. It proves that the gap between the two chips is the dominant factor for the modes matching and wavelength selection. It is also observed that the SMSR of the single mode output of the micromachined CCL (~ 24.5 dB) is higher than the peak value (~ 17 dB) of the single chip as predicted by the analysis. In addition, while the single longitudinal mode is maintained as SMSR > 19.0 dB, the wide wavelength tuning range can reach 51.3 nm. The measured output power is approximately -10 dBm. When the gap of the external cavity is adjusted, the mode selectivity and output stability are improved. Furthermore, the speed of the wavelength switching is estimated to reach the level of nanosecond based on the free carrier plasma effect. MEMS technology does not only offer high compactness and fine position adjustment, but also facilitates the integration of laser chips with other optical and electronic components onto a single-chip, making the micromachined CCLs promising for many applications.

where p0 is the grating period, m1 and m2 are the diffraction orders, and 1 and 2 are the diffraction angles.

Fig. 3. SEM of the MEMS dual-wavelength laser.

In the experiment, simultaneous two wavelength emissions are observed in the output. An output power of 2.9 mW is obtained when the driving current of 30 mA is applied on the gain chip. Higher output power of up to 10 mW can be achieved with a higher driving current (e.g., 80 mA), provided a thermoelectric cooler employed to stabilize the MEMS laser operating at 25 C. An example of optical spectrum in different output states is illustrated in Fig. 4. 1= (corresponding to mirror 1) is always locked at 1549.04 nm, while 2 (corresponding to mirror 2) is tuned from 1556.78 nm (Fig. 4(a)) to 1538.00 nm (Fig. 4(b)). Correspondingly, it demonstrates the change of of +7.74 and 11.04 nm. All the wavelength outputs (1 and 2) are in single frequency modes. Such oscillation spectra of the dual-wavelength laser are measured at 25 C.

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5-7 May, Seville, Spain

1.0

Power (a.u.)

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 1.0

=7.74 nm
Red shift
=1549.04 nm

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This work is supported by the Agency for Science, Technology, and Research (A*STAR) Singapore. The author sincerely acknowledges the collaborative partners of Institute of Microelectronics (IME) for their supports.

Power (a.u.)

0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0.0 1520

= - 11.04 nm Blue shift

REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] Ukita H, Uenishi Y, Tanaka H. A photomicrodynamic system with a mechanical resonator monolithically integrated with laser diodes on gallium arsenide, Science, vol. 260, 1993: 786-789.
Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Murukeshan V M, Lam Y L. A novel device level micromachined tuanble aser using polysilicon 3D mirror, IEEE Photo. Tech. Lett. vol. 13, 2001: 427429. Berger J D, Anthoon D. Tunable MEMS devices for otpical networks, Opt. Phot. News, vol 14, 2003: 4262. Zhang X M, Cai H, Lu C, Chen C K, Liu A Q. Design and experiment of 3-dimensional microoptical system for MEMS tunable lasers, Proc. MEMS 2006, 2226 Jan. 2006, Istanbul, Turkey, pp. 830833, paper MP45. Liu A. Q. Photonic MEMS Devices Design, Fabrication and control, Taylor & Francis, 2008. Li J, Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Zhong T. Light switching via thermo-optic effect of micromachined silicon prism, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 88, no. 24, 243501, 2006. Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Tang D Y, Lu C. Tunable laser using micromachined grating with continuous wavelength tuning, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 85, no. 17, 2004: 36843686. Zhang X M, Liu A Q, Tang D Y, Lu C. Discrete wavelength tunable laser using microelectromechanical systems technology, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 84, no. 3, 2004: 329331. Cai H, Zhang X M, Yu A B, Zhang Q X, Liu A Q. MEMS tuning mechanism for eliminating mode hopping problem in external-cavity lasers, Proc.MEMS, 2125 Jan. 2007, Kobe, Japan, pp. 159162. Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Cai H, Tang D Y, Lu C. Miniaturized injectionlocked laser using microelectromechanical systems technology, Appl. Phys. Lett., vol. 87, no. 10, 101101, 2005. Coldren L A, Miller B I, Iga K, Rentschler J A. Monolithic two-section GaInAsP/InP activeoptical-resonator devices formed by reactive-ionetching, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 38, 1981: 315317. Tsang W T, Olsson N A, Logan R A. High-speed direct singlefrequency modulation with large tuning rate and frequency excursion in cleaved-coupled-cavity semiconductor lasers, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 42, 1983: 650652. Cai H, Liu B, Zhang X M, Liu A Q, Bourouina T, Zhang Q X. A micromachined tunable coupled-cavity laser for wide tuning range and high spectral purity, Optics Express, vol. 16, no. 21, 2008: 1667016679. Coldren L A, Miller B I, Iga K, Rentschler J A. Monolithic two-section GaInAsP/InP activeoptical-resonator devices formed by reactive-ionetching, Appl. Phys. Lett. vol. 38, 1981: 315317. Cai H, Liu A Q, Zhang X M, Tamil J, Tang D Y, Wu J, Zhang Q X. Tunable dual-wavelength laser constructed by silicon micromachining, Appl. Phys Lett, vol. 92, no.05, 051113, 2008.

1540

Wavelength (nm)

1560

1580

[4]

Fig. 4. Spectra of the MEMS dual-wavelength laser. 1 is locked at 1549.04 nm, and 2 is tuned.

[5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]

The wavelength tuning ( 2 ) is shown in Fig. 5, where 2 has a maximum tuning range of more than 50 nm, corresponding to the rotation of mirror 2. It also shows that the tunable wavelength is almost linearly decreased with the increase in the rotation angle. The simultaneous emission at two different wavelengths is also shown in the inset.

[13]

Fig.5. Wavelength tuning ( 2 ) verses the rotation angle of mirror 2 (movable mirror).

[14] [15]

III.

CONCLUSIONS

Two different MEMS tunable lasers are reported such as MEMS coupled-cavity lasers, and dual-wavelength lasers. The MEMS tunable lasers achieve great improvement in high tuning speed, large tuning range and mechanically stability as compared with the traditional semiconductor tunable lasers. It has been proven that the MEMS tunable laser sources offer significant advantages and the fusion of MEMS tunability and photonic principles is expected to open up new opportunities for developing the next generation devices for applications of telecommunications and biophotonic medical instruments.

A. Q. Liu received his PhD degree from National University of Singapore (NUS) in 1994. His MSc degree was from Beijing University of Posts & Telecommunications in 1988 and BEng degree was from Xian Jiaotong University in 1982. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the Division of Microelectronics, School of Electrical & Electronic Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU). He was an Associate Editor of IEEE Sensors Journal 2005 2008, and also Guest Editor of Sensors & Actuators (A Physical) in 2005 and 2006 respectively. He authored a book entitled Photonic MEMS Devices Design, Fabrication and Control.

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