Ultrafast and Low-power-consumption Membrane Lasers on Si with Integrated Optical Feedback

We developed energy-efficient membrane III-V distributed-reflector lasers on silicon-based substrates for ultrafast short-reach communication links and neuromorphic computing applications. By leveraging high-speed photon-photon interactions enabled by integrated optical feedback and a high-optical-confinement membrane structure, we demonstrated record-fast directly modulated laser bandwidths and spike-processing rates with ultralow operating energies. This is a step towards our goal of reducing the carbon footprint of information and communication technology and artificial intelligence hardware, while keeping pace with the increasing demand of processing speeds. © 2023 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp.. All rights reserved.