Space-Ready Chip-Integrated Titanium:Sapphire Lasers

Brightlight Photonics is developing a universal nanophotonic laser, amplifier, modulator, and integrated frequency comb solution in the wavelength ranges 350 - 450 nm and 700 - 1000 nm for quantum technologies including optical atomic clocks, cold atom interferometers, and solid-state quantum sensors. The wavelength range 700 - 1000 nm is addressed by a single, wideband Titanium:Sapphire (Ti:Sapphire) gain medium, patterned into waveguides on a nanophotonic chip to form amplifiers and lasers. We propose to extend the platform’s capabilities through hybrid integration with thin-film lithium niobate for frequency-doubling to 350 - 450 nm and electro-optic modulation, as well as passive sapphire for frequency comb generation. One of the major impediments to compactifying quantum sensing and control technologies is their common reliance on bulky, expensive photonics–chip-integration of high-performance lasers below 1 micron wavelength has been an outstanding challenge. Our on-chip sources, amplifiers, and frequency combs could enable single-chip photonic generation and readout for optical atomic clocks–reducing payloads for deep-space navigation, explorations of dark matter, gravitational waves, and next-generation gravimeters, as well as our target commercial market: deployable optical atomic clocks for GPS-agnostic navigation. Our on-chip lasers and modulators could create unprecedented low-SWaP-C cold atom control at a wide range of wavelengths for next generation inertial sensors and the commercial quantum processor market. In Phase I we demonstrated a widely-tunable, narrow linewidth Ti:Sapphire laser and simulated watt-level amplification. For Phase II we have assembled nanophotonic leaders at Harvard with the commercialization, ruggedization, and miniaturization expertise at Vescent to expand the addressable on-chip range to the frequency-doubled regime as well as demonstrate integrated self-injection locked lasers, amplifiers, frequency combs, and modulators.