Electrooptic effects in GaAs-AlGaAs narrow coupled quantum wells

Author

Earnshaw, M.P. ; Allsopp, D.W.E.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electron., York Univ., UK

Volume

37

Issue

7

fYear

20011

Firstpage

897

Lastpage

904

Abstract

The linear and quadratic electrooptic coefficients in narrow single and strongly coupled GaAs-Al_xGa_1-xAs quantum wells have been measured. The quadratic electrooptic effect is enhanced over that of conventional square quantum wells for both TE and TM polarization in all the structures considered, by up to six times in the case of 2-nm-wide GaAs-Al_0.2Ga_0.8As strongly coupled quantum wells. The origin of the enhanced quadratic electrooptic effect was found to correlate with a larger red shift in the absorption edge exciton and strong Coulombic coupling of the bound exciton states with the quasi-continua

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; electro-optical effects; electroabsorption; excitons; gallium arsenide; light polarisation; red shift; semiconductor quantum wells; 2 nm; GaAs-Al_0.2Ga_0.8As; GaAs-Al_0.2Ga_0.8As strongly coupled quantum wells; GaAs-AlGaAs; GaAs-AlGaAs narrow coupled quantum wells; TE polarization; TM polarization; absorption edge exciton coupling; bound exciton states; electroabsorption; electrooptic effects; electrorefraction; linear electrooptic coefficients; narrow single GaAs-Al_xGa_1-xAs QW; quadratic electrooptic coefficients; quasi-continua; red shift; strong Coulombic coupling; strongly coupled GaAs-Al_xGa_1-xAs QW; Absorption; Electrooptic effects; Excitons; Optical modulation; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Phase modulation; Polarization; Switches; Tellurium;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.929589

Filename

929589