Researching | Erbium-doped/erbium-ytterbium co-doped waveguide amplifiers in silicon-based optoelectronics: recent progress

Advanced Photonics, Volume. 7, Issue 6, 064001(2025)

Erbium-doped/erbium-ytterbium co-doped waveguide amplifiers in silicon-based optoelectronics: recent progress

Xiwen He, Zheng Zhang, Deyue Ma, Chen Zhou, Huihuang Hou, Youqiang Shuai, Jiqiao Liu, Rongping Wang^*, Zhiping Zhou^*, and Weibiao Chen^*

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Fig. 1. Research field overview of EDWAs/EYCDWAs, which can be roughly classified into three parts: host materials, novel structures, and application scenarios. Among them, based on the properties of materials, host materials are further divided into two parts: inorganic and organic waveguide amplifiers. Some schematic sources: $Er : {Si}_{3} N_{4}$ , reprinted from Ref. 18; $Er : {TeO}_{2}$ , reprinted from Ref. 75; $Er : {Al}_{2} O_{3}$ , reprinted from Ref. 21; $Er : {Ta}_{2} O_{5}$ , reprinted from Ref. 66; $Er : polymer$ , reprinted from Ref. 92; $Er : TFLN$ , reprinted from Ref. 35; $Er : silicate$ , reprinted from Ref. 110; LMA, reprinted from Ref. 22; ULLW, reprinted from Ref. 93; slot, reprinted from Ref. 19; double-layer, reprinted from Ref. 57; optical communication, reprinted from Ref. 127; optoelectronic computing, reprinted from Ref. 128; quantum computing, reprinted from Ref. 129; and LiDAR, reprinted from Ref. 121.

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Fig. 2. ${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$ waveguide amplifiers fabricated by the damascene process, reprinted from Ref. 18.

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Fig. 3. Er/Er−Yb:TFLN waveguide amplifiers fabricated by the PLACE process. (a) Er:TFLN waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 23. (b) Four-channel Er:TFLN waveguide amplifier array, reprinted from Ref. 35. (c) Er−Yb:TFLN waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 25. (d) Coherent beam combination of Er:TFLN waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 34.

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Fig. 4. Er/Er−Yb:TFLN waveguide amplifiers fabricated by EBL and RIE process. (a)–(c) Er:TFLN waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Refs. 31, 36, and 40. (d) Er−Yb:TFLN waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 24.

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Fig. 5. $Er / Er ‐ {Yb : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers fabricated by directly etching the gain medium. (a), (b) ${Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Refs. 48 and 58. (c) $Er ‐ {Yb : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 49.

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Fig. 6. $Er / Er ‐ {Yb : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers fabricated by avoiding direct etching of the gain medium. (a) $Si ‐ {Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 20. (b) ${Si}_{3} N_{4} ‐ {Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 21. (c) $HSQ ‐ {Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 62. (d) $GeSbS ‐ {Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 50.

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Fig. 7. ${Er : TeO}_{2}$ waveguide amplifiers fabricated by (a) directly etching the gain medium, reprinted from Ref. 79, and (b) avoiding direct etching of the gain medium, reprinted from Ref. 75.

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Fig. 8. ${Er : Ta}_{2} O_{5}$ waveguide amplifiers fabricated by (a) directly etching the gain medium, reprinted from Ref. 68, and (b) avoiding direct etching of the gain medium, reprinted from Ref. 66.

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Fig. 9. Er:silicate waveguide amplifiers. (a) ${Si}_{3} N_{4}$ hybrid, strip-loaded, and slot Er-Yb:silicate waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Refs. 110 112" target="_self" style="display: inline;">–112. (b) Single-crystalline erbium chlorosilicate compound nanowire, reprinted from Ref. 113.

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Fig. 10. Er/Er-Yb:polymer waveguide amplifiers with embedded structure. (a) SU-8-loaded waveguide amplifier, reprinted from Ref. 88. (b) Inverted ridge waveguide amplifier, reprinted from Ref. 114.

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Fig. 11. Waveguide amplifiers with Er:polymer up-cladding. (a) Without aluminum mirror, reprinted from Ref. 84. (b) With aluminum mirror, reprinted from Ref. 92.

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Fig. 12. Low-confinement ${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$ waveguide amplifiers. (a) Multi-lane ${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Ref. 27. (b) and (c) Tunable laser based on ${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$ waveguide amplifiers, reprinted from Refs. 12, 115, and 26.

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Fig. 13. Large mode area Er:TFLN waveguide amplifier, reprinted from Ref. 22.

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Fig. 14. ${Er : Al}_{2} O_{3}$ slot waveguide amplifier, reprinted from Ref. 19.

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Fig. 15. Main preparation processes of Er-doped/Er-Yb co-doped gain media. (a) Ion implantation, reprinted from Ref. 116. (b) ALD, reprinted from Ref. 19. (c) Magnetron sputtering, reprinted from Ref. 49. (d) Ion slicing combined with bonding process, reprinted from Ref. 44.

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Fig. 16. Main preparation processes of Er-doped/Er-Yb co-doped waveguide. (a) Damascene process, reprinted from Ref. 117. (b) EBL combined with ICP-RIE, reprinted from Ref. 118. (c) PLACE, reprinted from Ref. 119.

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Fig. 17. Typical application scenarios of EDWAs/EYCDWAs. (a) Coherent optical transmission, reprinted from Ref. 29. (b) On-chip integrated lasers, reprinted from Refs. 12, 17, and 13. (c) LiDAR, reprinted from Refs. 121 and 122.

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Fig. 18. Commercial applications of EDWAs/EYCDWAs. (a) Teem Photonics’ Metro module, reprinted from Ref. 101. (b) Inplane Photonics’ LBIC module, reprinted from Ref. 103. (c) Packaged EDWL, reprinted from Refs. 12 and 18. (d) Packaged EDWA, reprinted from Ref. 107.

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Fig. 19. Schematic diagram of SBO chips with EDWAs/EYCDWAs and their typical application scenarios.

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Table 1. Comparison for representative Er-doped/Er-Yb co-doped waveguide amplifiers.

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Table 1. Comparison for representative Er-doped/Er-Yb co-doped waveguide amplifiers.


GM	WS	FPM	FPW	L (cm)	G (dB)	UNG (dB/cm)	Loss (dB/cm)	Ref.
${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$	Channel	I/I-2 MeV	D	50.0	30.0	0.6	0.05	18
${Er : Si}_{3} N_{4}$	Strip	I/I-500 keV	D	17.0	15.0	0.88	$0.05 - 0.1$	27
Er/Yb:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	E + I	0.5	8.26	16.52	$\sim 1.08$	24
Er/Yb:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	PLACE	15.0	27.0	1.8	$\sim 0.36$	25
Er:TFLN	LMA	C + S	PLACE	7.0	28.0	4.0	—	22
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	PLACE	10.0	20.0	2.0	0.72	46
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	PLACE	3.6	18.0	5.0	0.16	23
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	PLACE	2.5	13.0	5.2	—	34
Er:TFLN	Strip	C + S	E + I	9.16	38.0	4.15	0.4	32
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	E + I	10	22.26	2.2	0.18	31
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	E + I	2.58	16	6.2	4.2	37
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	E + I	2.8	24.8	8.86	—	38
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	L + I	5.6	18.8	3.36	0.6	33
Er:TFLN	Rib	C + S	E + R	0.5	5.2	10.4	$\sim 2$	30
Er:TFLN	Rib	C + S	E + R	0.53	8.3	15.66	$\sim 6.8$	36
Er:TFLN	Ridge	C + S	E + I	0.5	15	30	$\sim 0.83$	39
Er/Yb: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Ridge	Sputtering	L + W	3.0	4.3	1.43	$\sim 0.2$	49
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Slot	ALD	E + D	$250 μ m$	—	20.1 ± 7.31	35.83 ± 4.18	19
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Double-layer	Sputtering	L + R	10.0	18.1 ± 0.9	1.81 ± 0.09	0.65 ± 0.05	21
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Channel	Sputtering	L + R	12.9	20.0	1.55	0.19	48
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Ridge	Sputtering	E + R	12.9	33.5	2.6	0.46	58
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Strip-loaded	ALD	E + P	4.6	6.27 ± 0.62	—	0.2	50
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Strip-loaded	ALD	EBL	3.55	8.4	2.37	6.2	62
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Strip-loaded	ALD	EBL	1.0	4.6 ± 0.4	—	5.0 ± 0.4	61
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Strip-loaded	ALD	EBL	9.31	14.4	1.5	8.5	60
Er: ${Al}_{2} O_{3}$	Ridge	PEALD	L + W	0.2	2.74 ± 0.4	13.71 ± 1.97	0.6 ± 0.15	56
Er: ${TeO}_{2}$	Ridge	Sputtering	Coated	2.2	3.8	1.73	0.25	75
Er: ${TeO}_{2}$	Ridge	Sputtering	Coated	6.7	5.0	0.75	0.25	75
Er: ${TeO}_{2}$	Bilayer	Sputtering	L + R	5.0	14.0	2.8	0.6	79
Er: ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$	Double-layer	Sputtering	L + I	1.2	6.36	4.63	0.67	66
Er: ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$	Rib	Sputtering	L + IBM	2.3	4.83 ± 0.11	2.1	0.65	68
Er: ${Ta}_{2} O_{5}$	Ridge	Sputtering	L + L	2.0	—	3.1 ± 0.1	1.1	74
Er:silicate	Nanowire	—	—	$56.2 μ m$	—	122.0	—	113
Er/Yb:silicate	Rib	Sputtering	Coated	0.59	3.1	5.25	3.2 ± 0.3	110
Er/Yb:silicate	Slot	Sputtering	L + D	0.6	1.7	2.83	14.7	112
Er/Yb:silicate	Strip-loaded	Sputtering	L + D	0.78	5.5	7.05	8.1	111
Er:polymer	Channel	Synthesis	L + P	1.0	—	6.7	1.8	81
Er:polymer	Channel	Synthesis	L + P	1.0	—	7.4	4.2	92
Er/Yb:polymer	Channel	Synthesis	L + P	0.5	9.5	—	2.21	87
Er/Yb:polymer	Embedded	Synthesis	L + P	1.6	27	—	—	91
Er/Yb:polymer	Embedded	Synthesis	L + P	1.3	15.1	11.6	5.3 ± 0.3	114
Er/Yb:polymer	Strip-loaded	Synthesis	L + P	0.5	17.7	—	1.8	88
Er/Yb:polymer	Channel	Synthesis	DD	1.2	—	6.6	2.9	130

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Xiwen He, Zheng Zhang, Deyue Ma, Chen Zhou, Huihuang Hou, Youqiang Shuai, Jiqiao Liu, Rongping Wang, Zhiping Zhou, Weibiao Chen, "Erbium-doped/erbium-ytterbium co-doped waveguide amplifiers in silicon-based optoelectronics: recent progress," Adv. Photon. 7, 064001 (2025)

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Paper Information

Category: Reviews

Received: Apr. 8, 2025

Accepted: Aug. 27, 2025

Published Online: Sep. 25, 2025

The Author Email: Rongping Wang (wangrongping@nbu.edu.cn), Zhiping Zhou (zjzhou@pku.edu.cn), Weibiao Chen (wbchen@siom.ac.cn)

DOI:10.1117/1.AP.7.6.064001

CSTR:32187.14.1.AP.7.6.064001

Topics

laser devices and laser physics

Lasers and Laser Optics

laser manufacturing

Instrumentation, Measurement and Metrology