A tunable laser based on nano-opto-mechanical system

This paper presents an external cavity tunable laser based on nano-opto-mechanical system by integrating the gain laser diode and the opto-mechanical ring resonators on a silicon chip. An optical force controlled tuning approach is demonstrated whereby the lasing light itself adjusts the lasing wavelength by controlling the mechanical displacement of the silicon ring resonator. In the experiments, a 24-nm wavelength tuning is realized due to a deflection of 14-nm. The optomechanical wavelength tuning coefficient is 214 GHz/nm. The demonstrated device has potential applications for optical communication system, pulse trapping/release, and chemical sensing, with easy on-chip integration on a silicon platform.