Limits of electro-absorption in high purity GaAs, and the optimisation of waveguide devices

Author

Wight, D.R. ; Heaton, J.M. ; Keir, A.M. ; Norcross, R.J. ; Pryce, G.J. ; Wright, P.J. ; Birbeck, J.C.H.

Author_Institution

R. Signals & Radar Establ., Great Malvern, UK

Volume

135

Issue

1

fYear

1988

fDate

2/1/1988 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

39

Lastpage

44

Abstract

An alternative theoretical treatment for electro-absorption at the fundamental absorption edge of semiconductors is compared with experimental results in high purity MOCVD grown GaAs. For the first time, acceptable agreement between theory and experiment is demonstrated for wide ranges of wavelengths (0.85-1.0 μm), and applied fields (up to breakdown field). It is shown that these results enable optimised electro-absorption modulators to be designed for low insertion loss, high extinction ratio, high cut off frequency, and wide optical bandwidth. The feasibility of waveguide device with performance parameters higher than any reported to data is predicted, and experimental devices are reported which approach these predictions at low frequencies of operation

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; chemical vapour deposition; electro-optical devices; electroabsorption; gallium arsenide; integrated optics; optical modulation; optical waveguides; 0.85 to 1.0 micron; MOCVD; electro-absorption; fundamental absorption edge; high cut off frequency; high extinction ratio; high purity GaAs; low insertion loss; optimised electro-absorption modulators; semiconductor; wide optical bandwidth;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Optoelectronics, IEE Proceedings J

Publisher

iet

ISSN

0267-3932

Type

jour

Filename

6829