CMOS-Compatible Er:Ta₂O₅ Chip for Ultrashort Pulse Amplification

Erbium-doped fiber amplifiers (EDFAs) revolutionized long-haul optical communications and laser technology. However, they face compatibility challenges with future integrated photonic applications that require on-chip processing. Additionally, EDFAs cause significant spectral and temporal distortion when amplifying ultrashort light pulses due to a long interaction length leading to high dispersion and nonlinearities. Erbium ions doped in tantalum pentoxide provide a promising solution for efficient, distortion-free optical pulse amplification in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The CMOS-compatible on-chip erbium-doped tantalum pentoxide (Er:Ta<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</inf>O<inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">5</inf>) waveguide amplifier further surpasses traditional EDFAs by offering advantages in integration, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and suitability for high-speed optical communication systems[1].