CMOS compatible rare-earth-doped waveguide amplifier

1. A waveguide amplifier comprising:

a substrate including an upper surface and a lower surface;

a core (Si or SiN) formed on an upper surface of the substrate, the core including a channel configured to transmit light there through; and

an upper cladding layer formed above the core, the upper cladding layer including a glass doped with rare earth material.

2. The waveguide amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the core is free of rare-earth material.

3. The waveguide amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the upper cladding layer is selected from the rare earth material, silica, phosphorus, geranium, aluminum, boron or combinations thereof.

4. The waveguide amplifier of claim 3 , wherein the rare earth material is present in an amount less than 3%.

5. The waveguide amplifier of claim 4 , wherein the rare earth material is present in an amount less than 1%.

6. The waveguide amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the rare-earth doped material is selected from lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, promethium, samarium, europium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, holmium, erbium, thulium, ytterbium, lutetium or combinations thereof.

7. The waveguide amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the core has a circular spiraling configuration entirely positioned on the upper surface of the substrate.

8. The waveguide amplifier of claim 1 , wherein the upper cladding layer exhibits a waveguide loss less than 20 dB/m at wavelengths ranging from 1 to 8 μm.

9. A waveguide amplifier comprising:

a substrate including an upper surface and a lower surface;

a core free of rare-earth material formed on an upper surface of the substrate, the core including a channel configured to transmit light therethrough; and

an upper cladding layer formed above the core.

10. The waveguide amplifier of claim 9 , wherein the upper cladding layer is selected from the rare-earth material, silica, phosphorus, germanium, aluminum, boron or combinations thereof.

11. The waveguide amplifier of claim 10 , wherein the upper cladding layer includes a glass doped with rare earth material in an amount less than about 5 wt. % of the upper cladding layer.

12. The waveguide amplifier of claim 11 , wherein the rare earth material is present in an amount less than 3%.

13. The waveguide amplifier of claim 12 , wherein the rare earth material is present in an amount less than 1%.

14. A method of amplifying a signal comprising:

providing a waveguide amplifier including

a substrate having upper and lower surfaces,

a core disposed on the upper surface of the substrate, and

an upper cladding layer disposed on the core and including a rare-earth doped material;

receiving a signal light in a first end of the core;

receiving a pump light in the core to excite a surface of the upper cladding layer;

guiding the signal and pump light through the core; and

amplifying the signal light after the guiding step.

15. The method of claim 14 , wherein an output of the signal light is less than about 15.8 mW at 60 MW of the pump light.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the output of the signal light is about 6-10 mW at 60 mW of the pump light.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein the core is free of dopants.

18. The method of claim 14 , wherein the upper cladding layer is selected from the rare-earth material, silica, phosphorus, germanium, aluminum, boron or combinations thereof.

19. The method of claim 14 , wherein the upper cladding layer includes a glass doped with the rare earth material in an amount less than about 5 wt. % of the upper cladding layer.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the rare earth material is present in an amount less than 3% of the upper cladding layer.