lithium niobate / 06 Devices / 6.10
6.10 Heterogeneous lasers, amplifiers, detectors
L1 Phenomenon
LN does not emit or detect light well on its own. Bonding a sliver of III-V semiconductor onto the chip adds a laser; doping the film with erbium adds an amplifier; bonding InP or silicon adds a photodiode. The modulator then sits millimeters from its light source and its receiver.
L2 Devices and values
| Function | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| III-V-on-TFLN lasers and amplifiers | electrically pumped, EO-tuned | reported |
| Laser transmitter | up to 60 mW in the waveguide; with a 50 GHz modulator | reported |
| Pockels laser | 2.0×1018 Hz/s frequency-modulation speed; 50 MHz switching | reported |
| Self-injection-locked Si3N4-LN laser | 3 kHz intrinsic linewidth; 12×1015 Hz/s tuning; FMCW LiDAR demo | reported |
| Mode-locked laser (III-V + TFLN) | about 4.8 ps, about 10 GHz, > 2.6 pJ, about 1065 nm | reported |
| Er:LNOI waveguide amplifier | > 28 dB fiber-to-fiber net gain at 1531 nm, NF 5.3 dB, > 15 dBm output | reported |
| a-Si detector (visible) | 22-37 mA/W, 635-850 nm | reported |
| InP MUTC photodiode on TFLN | 110 GHz, 0.4 A/W | reported |
| InP-LN wafer-level receiver | photodiode 140 GHz; 7-channel coherent receiver, 3.584 Tb/s aggregate | reported |
| GaAs lasers + TFLN modulator, 1064 nm | 100 Gb/s NRZ, 160 Gb/s PAM4; Vπ 3.1 V, 1.8 V cm, bandwidth > 100 GHz | reported (OFC 2026 Th4A.5) |
L3 Comparability
- Internal (on-chip) gain and fiber-to-fiber net gain are not comparable; internal values (e.g. 38 dB internal net gain [Wang et al. 2024]) are not plotted with fiber-to-fiber values.
Sources
| Ref | Title | Link |
|---|---|---|
| Desiatov and Lončar 2019 | Silicon photodetector for integrated lithium niobate photonics | doi:10.1063/1.5118901 |
| Guo et al. 2023 | Ultrafast mode-locked laser in nanophotonic lithium niobate | doi:10.1126/science.adj5438 |
| Li et al. 2022 | Integrated Pockels laser | doi:10.1038/s41467-022-33101-6 |
| Op de Beeck et al. 2021 | III/V-on-lithium niobate amplifiers and lasers | doi:10.1364/OPTICA.438620 |
| Shams-Ansari et al. 2022 | Electrically pumped laser transmitter integrated on thin-film lithium niobate | doi:10.1364/OPTICA.448617 |
| Snigirev et al. 2023 | Ultrafast tunable lasers using lithium niobate integrated photonics | doi:10.1038/s41586-023-05724-2 |
| Wang et al. 2024 | Erbium-doped lithium niobate on insulator waveguide amplifier with ultra-high internal net gain of 38 dB | doi:10.1364/cleo_at.2024.atu4m.3 |
| Wei et al. 2023 | Ultra-wideband Waveguide-coupled Photodiodes Heterogeneously Integrated on a Thin-film Lithium Niobate Platform | doi:10.37188/lam.2023.030 |
| Xie et al. 2025 | A 3.584 Tbps coherent receiver chip on InP-LiNbO3 wafer-level integration platform | doi:10.1038/s41377-025-01821-1 |
| Yu et al. 2026 | Erbium‐Doped Lithium Niobate‐on‐Insulator Waveguide Amplifier With 28 dB Fiber‐to‐Fiber Net Gain | doi:10.1002/lpor.71753 |