Wavelength-controlled external-cavity laser with a silicon photonic crystal resonant reflector

We report the experimental demonstration of an alternative design of external-cavity hybrid lasers consisting of a III-V Semiconductor Optical Amplifier with fiber reflector and a Photonic Crystal (PhC) based resonant reflector on SOI. The Silicon reflector comprises a polymer (SU8) bus waveguide vertically coupled to a PhC cavity and provides a wavelength-selective optical feedback to the laser cavity. This device exhibits milliwatt-level output power and sidemode suppression ratio of more than 25 dB