Rapid progress in photonics has led to an explosion of integrated devices that promise to deliver the same performance as table-top technology at the nanoscale, heralding the next generation of optical communications, sensing and metrology, and quantum technologies. However, the challenge of co-integrating the multiple components of high-performance laser systems has left application of these nanoscale devices thwarted by bulky laser sources that are orders of magnitude larger than the devices themselves. Here we show that the two main components for high-performance lasers—noise reduction and isolation—can be sourced simultaneously from a single, passive, CMOS-compatible nanophotonic device, eliminating the need to combine incompatible technologies. To realize this, we take advantage of both the long photon lifetime and the non-reciprocal Kerr nonlinearity of a high-quality-factor silicon nitride ring resonator to self-injection lock a semiconductor laser chip while also providing isolation. We also identify a previously unappreciated power regime limitation of current on-chip laser architectures, which our system overcomes. Using our device, which we term a unified laser stabilizer, we demonstrate an on-chip integrated laser system with built-in isolation and noise reduction that operates with turnkey reliability. This approach departs from efforts to directly miniaturize and integrate traditional laser system components and serves to bridge the gap to fully integrated optical technologies.

光子学的快速发展导致了集成器件的爆炸式增长，这些器件有望在纳米级提供与台式技术相同的性能，预示着下一代光通信、传感和计量以及量子技术的到来。然而，将高性能激光系统的多个组件共同集成的挑战使得这些纳米级器件的应用受到比器件本身大几个数量级的笨重激光源的阻碍。在这里，我们展示了高性能激光器的两个主要组件——降噪和隔离——可以同时来自单个无源、兼容 CMOS 的纳米光子器件，无需组合不兼容的技术。为了实现这一目标，我们利用优质因数氮化硅环形谐振器的长光子寿命和非互易克尔非线性来自注入锁定半导体激光芯片，同时提供隔离。我们还确定了当前片上激光器架构以前未被重视的功率机制限制，我们的系统克服了这一限制。使用我们的器件（我们称之为统一激光稳定器），我们展示了一个具有内置隔离和降噪功能的片上集成激光系统，该系统以交钥匙可靠性运行。这种方法与直接小型化和集成传统激光系统组件的努力不同，旨在弥合与完全集成光学技术的差距。