Photonic integrated circuits require the ability to integrate both lasers and waveguides with low absorption and coupling loss. This technology is being developed at LLNL for digital logic gates for optical key generation circuits to facilitate secure communications. Here, we demonstrate an approach of integrating InGaAs DQW edge emitting lasers (EEL) with electron beam evaporated dielectric waveguides. The EELs are defined by electron cyclotron resonance etching (ECR). This approach results in highly anisotropic etched mirrors with smooth etched features (sidewall rms roughness = 28 (angstrom), surface rms roughness = 10 (angstrom)). The mirror is etched to form both the laser cavity and define the waveguide mesa, which accommodates a dielectric stack, where the core is aligned with the active region of the laser to achieve maximum vertical mode overlapping. The waveguides are based on SiO(sub 2)/Ta(sub 2)O(sub 5)/SiO(sub 2) which yields a high index contrast of 0.6, resulting in low loss guides ((approx)2-3dB/cm). The design of the interface has taken into account the waveguide transmission loss, air gap spacing and tilt between the laser and waveguide. The critical feature for this deposition technique is its required high directionality or minimal sidewall deposition and corner effects. In the butt coupled EEL/waveguide system we have measured a slope efficiency to be as high as 0.45 W/A. We have in conclusion demonstrated a technology that allows direct coupling of a dielectric optical interconnect to a semiconductor laser monolithically fabricated on the semiconductor substrate.
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