Any-Wavelength Laser

The Technology

The any-wavelength laser project aims to create a compact, low-power laser that can produce light of any wavelength between 400 nanometers to 1,600 nanometers, encompassing all visible light colors and roughly half of the near-infrared spectrum. NIST researchers in collaboration with the company Octave Photonics are working to integrate these lasers onto silicon chips by depositing thin layers of semiconductors and optical waveguides, creating tiny circuits for light.

Semiconductor lasers are very good at generating infrared light with a wavelength of 980 nanometers, or billionths of a meter. But emerging quantum technologies such as optical atomic clocks and quantum computers need laser light in many other colors as well. 

The any-wavelength laser uses nonlinear optics — a set of materials and techniques that allow certain materials to absorb light of one color and output other colors. NIST researchers make their laser out of a material called tantala, based on the metallic element tantalum. Tantala is very good at guiding light waves with low losses and can convert incoming laser light at one wavelength into a large range of other light wavelengths.

Advantages Over Existing Methods

Lasers that generate light in optical wavelengths tend to be large, power-hungry and expensive, effectively confining most optical clocks and other quantum technologies to large science laboratories. An any-wavelength laser based on integrated photonics could be much smaller, use much less power and be much cheaper than current technology.

Applications   

The any-wavelength laser could allow optical atomic clocks — the most accurate and precise clocks in the world — to be made much smaller and consume much less power. This in turn could enable these clocks to more readily escape the lab and be deployed in the field. Portable optical clocks could have many applications in geodesy, positioning, navigation and fundamental science.

The any-wavelength laser could also provide a boost for the emerging technology of quantum computing. Many quantum computer designs use atoms as their building blocks and rely on lasers to control and manipulate those atoms. Similar to optical clocks, today’s quantum computers are big, complex and expensive machines typically found in laboratories, largely due to the lasers needed to operate them. Smaller and less power-hungry lasers will help quantum computers along the road to becoming integrated into our computing infrastructure.

Key Papers

M. Davanco, J.-Y. Kim, L. Sapienza and K. Srinivasan. “Heterogeneously integrated AlGaAs/GaAs photodiodes on tantala waveguides.” Journal of Lightwave Technology. Published Dec. 1, 2024. DOI: 10.1364/OE.395723

G. Spektor, D. Carlson, Z. Newman, J. L. Skarda, N. Sapra, L. Su, S. Jammi, A. R. Ferdinand, A. Agrawal, J. Vučković and S. B. Papp. “Universal visible emitters in nanoscale integrated photonics.” Optica. Published June 30, 2023. DOI: 10.1364/OPTICA.486747

Key Patent

S. Papp, D. Carlson and K. Srinivasan. “Method and Process for Tantala Integrated Nonlinear Photonics.” Patent Application Number: 2021/0055627 A1