On-Chip Integrated Yb3+-Doped Waveguide Amplifiers on Thin Film Lithium Niobate
Zhihao Zhang, Zhiwei Fang, Junxia Zhou, Youting Liang, Yuan Zhou, Zhe Wang, Jian Liu, T. C. Huang, Rui Bao, Jianping Yu, Haisu Zhang, Min Wang, Ya Cheng
Abstract
We report the fabrication and optical characterization of Yb3+-doped waveguide amplifiers (YDWA) on the thin film lithium niobate fabricated by photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching. The fabricated Yb3+-doped lithium niobate waveguides demonstrates low propagation loss of 0.13 dB/cm at 1030 nm and 0.1 dB/cm at 1060 nm. The internal net gain of 5 dB at 1030 nm and 8 dB at 1060 nm are measured on a 4.0 cm long waveguide pumped by 976 nm laser diodes, indicating the gain per unit length of 1.25 dB/cm at 1030 nm and 2 dB/cm at 1060 nm, respectively. The integrated Yb3+-doped lithium niobate waveguide amplifiers will benefit the development of a powerful gain platform and are expected to contribute to the high-density integration of thin film lithium niobate based photonic chip.