Tunable, coherent optical comb source via on-chip bidirectional coupling

A tunable comb source is demonstrated through gain switching on a three-sectioned photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The PIC consists of two mutually coupled lasers connected by a passive waveguide. One of these is a tunable, two-section, single mode laser. The second laser is a simple Fabry–Perot cavity laser which can be phase-locked with the single mode laser via bidirectional coupling. Frequency combs are produced by gain switching the Fabry–Perot laser by applying a high-power radio frequency signal. Combs are generated with line spacings ranging from 3.5 to 8 GHz. The on-chip bidirectional coupling causes the comb to also be generated in the two-section device. Despite the lack of on-chip optical isolation between the lasers, the resulting combs are stable. Numerical simulations using a delay-differential model reproduce the results and reveal the important role played by the short delay times inherent to on-chip integration in this stability.