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Review
. 2020 Mar 23;11(3):330.
doi: 10.3390/mi11030330.

Integrated Raman Laser: A Review of the Last Two Decades

Maria Antonietta Ferrara  1 , Luigi Sirleto  1
Affiliations
Review

Integrated Raman Laser: A Review of the Last Two Decades

Maria Antonietta Ferrara et al. Micromachines (Basel). .

Abstract

Important accomplishments concerning an integrated laser source based on stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) have been achieved in the last two decades in the fields of photonics, microphotonics and nanophotonics. In 2005, the first integrated silicon laser based upon SRS was realized in the nonlinear waveguide. This breakthrough promoted an intense research activity addressed to the realization of integrated Raman sources in photonics microstructures, like microcavities and photonics crystals. In 2012, a giant Raman gain in silicon nanocrystals was measured for the first time. Starting from this impressive result, some promising devices have recently been realized combining nanocrystals and microphotonics structures. Of course, the development of integrated Raman sources has been influenced by the trend of photonics towards the nano-world, which started from the nonlinear waveguide, going through microphotonics structures, and finally coming to nanophotonics. Therefore, in this review, the challenges, achievements and perspectives of an integrated laser source based on SRS in the last two decades are reviewed, side by side with the trend towards nanophotonics. The reported results point out promising perspectives for integrated micro- and/or nano-Raman lasers.

Keywords: lasers; microphotonics; nanocrystals; nanophotonics; nonlinear optics; nonlinear waveguide; optical microcavity; photonics crystals; stimulated Raman scattering.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
(a) SRS modalities: SRG, stimulated Raman gain; SRL, stimulated Raman loss; (b) inelastic scattering of probe photons obtained from vibrationally-excited molecules interfering coherently.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Typical configurations of the Raman laser: (a) external-resonator Raman laser; (b) intracavity Raman laser; and (c) fiber Raman amplifiers.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Comparison of Raman bandwidth and the efficiency of silicon and silica.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Typical configurations of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide Raman laser.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Schematic example of a taper-toroid coupling system.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Schematic of a heterosctructure nanocavity. (b) Band diagram of the nanocavity. (c) Schematic of the in-plane Raman scattering for the cavity’s x-direction being parallel to the (100) direction of crystalline Si.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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