Electrically controlled optical beam-steering/waveguiding in an active GaAs slab

Author

Xuesong Dong ; Wa, P.L. ; Loehr, J.P. ; Kaspi, R.

Author_Institution

Sch. of Opt., Central Florida Univ., Orlando, FL, USA

fYear

1999

fDate

28-28 May 1999

Firstpage

284

Lastpage

285

Abstract

Summary form only given. The effect of carrier induced refractive index change in semiconductor lasers has been studied extensively in the 1990s. Owing to the plasma effect, a region that is highly populated with charged carriers experiences a lowering of its refractive index. It is known that when the carrier density in the active region is increased by 10/sup 18/ cm/sup -3/, the refractive index can be depressed by an order of 10/sup -3/. In this report we describe the use of this mechanism to achieve horizontal confinement in a planar GaAs-AlGaAs slab waveguide. Currents are injected via two adjacent contact stripes forming anti-guiding regions immediately underneath the stripes.

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; beam steering; electro-optical devices; gallium arsenide; optical planar waveguides; refractive index; semiconductor lasers; waveguide lasers; GaAs-AlGaAs; active GaAs slab; active region; adjacent contact stripes; anti-guiding regions; carrier density; carrier induced refractive index change; charged carriers; electrically controlled optical beam-steering/waveguiding; highly populated; horizontal confinement; optical beam steering; planar GaAs-AlGaAs slab waveguide; plasma effect; refractive index; semiconductor lasers; Charge carrier density; Laser transitions; Optical beams; Optical control; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Plasma density; Plasma waves; Refractive index; Semiconductor lasers;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Lasers and Electro-Optics, 1999. CLEO '99. Summaries of Papers Presented at the Conference on

Conference_Location

Baltimore, MD, USA

Print_ISBN

1-55752-595-1

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/CLEO.1999.834196

Filename

834196