LioniX International together with the Dutch University of Twente has announced the development of a tunable diode laser on a chip which has a bandwidth (maximum frequency-uncertainty) of just 290 Hz. This laser operates in the IR region at 1550 nm with an 81 nm tuning range. The bandwidth is thus extremely narrow at around 1.5 ppt (parts per trillion). It is an integrated InP-Si3N4 hybrid laser with particularly high spectral purity.

For photonic chips it is necessary to have correspondingly controllable light sources. When transmitting the light, it is important that the photons are homogeneous with the wavelength as close as possible. The researchers have now succeeded in developing a physically small laser with a particularly low bandwidth of only 290 Hz. This device has been heralded as probably the most accurate chip laser ever produced. In addition to chip photonics, this technology has applications for fiber-optic communications where particularly high data rates (such as 5G mobile networks) are required.