Hybrid Integrated Narrow Linewidth Laser with External Distributed Optical Feedback from a Silicon Strip Waveguide

External optical feedback via Rayleigh scattering from an integrated microresonator or a fiber has been demonstrated to significantly narrow the intrinsic linewidth of semiconductor lasers. Wavelength matching between the lasing cavity and the external high-Q microresonator is required to accumulate Rayleigh scattering. Fiber can provide Rayleigh scattering for any lasing wavelength. However, fibers hundreds of meters long are required for the accumulation of Rayleigh scattering, hindering the integration of narrow line width lasers. Here, we present an integrated scheme that collects distributed feedback signal with weak wavelength dependence by exploiting surface radiation in a silicon strip waveguide. The effects of waveguide width on the intensities of the surface radiation and distributed optical feedback signal are first numerically analyzed by introducing a collection coefficient. Numerical calculations show that a 1 μm-wide strip waveguide yields optimal performance for excitation and collection of distributed optical feedback, which is also experimentally verified by measuring the feedback signal with an optical frequency-domain reflectometry. Benefiting from the enhanced distributed optical feedback that is 34.72 dB higher than that in a single-mode fiber, the hybrid integrated laser demonstrates an intrinsic line width of 1.52 kHz, a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of 74.71 dB, and a frequency noise of 24.44 Hz2/Hz. Furthermore, within a maximum allowable wavelength tuning range of 2.342 nm, the line width narrowing ratio depends little on the wavelength for all the waveguides with different widths. The method for efficiently collecting distributed feedback signal provides a feasible solution for integrating random lasers and chaotic lasers.