Femtosecond pulse amplification on a chip

Femtosecond laser pulses enable the synthesis of light across the electromagnetic spectrum and provide access to ultrafast phenomena in physics, biology, and chemistry. Chip-integration of femtosecond technology could revolutionize applications such as point-of-care diagnostics, bio-medical imaging, portable chemical sensing, or autonomous navigation. However, current chip-integrated pulse sources lack the required peak power, and on-chip amplification of femtosecond pulses has been an unresolved challenge. Here, addressing this challenge, we report >50-fold amplification of 1 GHz-repetition-rate chirped femtosecond pulses in a CMOS-compatible photonic chip to 800 W peak power with 116 fs pulse duration. This power level is 2–3 orders of magnitude higher compared to those in previously demonstrated on-chip pulse sources and can provide the power needed to address key applications. To achieve this, detrimental nonlinear effects are mitigated through all-normal dispersion, large mode-area and rare-earth-doped gain waveguides. These results offer a pathway to chip-integrated femtosecond technology with peak power levels characteristic of table-top sources.

Mahmoud A. Gaafar, Markus Ludwig, Kai Wang, Thibault Wildi, Thibault Voumard, Milan Sinobad, Jan Lorenzen, Henry Francis, Jose Carreira, Shuangyou Zhang, Toby Bi, Pascal Del’Haye, Michael Geiselmann, Neetesh Singh, Franz X. Kärtner, Sonia M. Garcia-Blanco, Tobias Herr