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arXiv · 2604.22397

On-Chip Neodymium-Doped Lithium Niobate Microdisk Laser with Self-Induced Pulsing

Yuxuan He·Jiangwei Wu·Xiangmin Liu·Feiyang Shen·Feng Chen·Yuechen Jia·Xianfeng Chen·Yuping Chen
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Abstract

Rare-earth-doped materials constitute the foundation of conventional solid-state lasers, but their bulk-crystal form is inherently incompatible with photonic integration, making it challenging to realize compact, high performance nanoscale laser sources. Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), with its exceptional electro-optic and nonlinear optical properties, has emerged as one of the most promising platforms for integrated photonics. Combining Nd3+ doping with LNOI offers the unique possibility of uniting the efficient gain provided by Nd3+ ions with the excellent characteristics of LNOI. However, on-chip laser emission from Nd:LNOI has not been demonstrated previously. In this work, we report the first realization of an integrated Nd:LNOI microdisk laser, demonstrating lasing at 1094.17 nm under 785.10 nm pumping with a low threshold of 146 uW and a slope efficiency of 1.962*10^(-5). Beyond continuous-wave operation, we further observe self-induced laser pulsing on the hundred-microsecond scale, with a laser-pulse duration down to 500 us and an oscillation period of 6.45 ms, arising from nonlinear thermo-optic-photorefractive dynamics. We demonstrate stable continuous wave lasing and self-induced pulsed emission within a monolithically integrated Nd:LNOI cavity. Our results expand the operational degrees of freedom for LNOI-based lasers and open a new direction toward deeply integrated gain with intrinsic nonlinear dynamical processes.

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Yuxuan He, Jiangwei Wu, Xiangmin Liu, Feiyang Shen, Feng Chen, Yuechen Jia, Xianfeng Chen, Yuping Chen. 2026-04-24. On-Chip Neodymium-Doped Lithium Niobate Microdisk Laser with Self-Induced Pulsing. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.22397

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