Title :
Optical properties of AlxGa1-xAs heterostructure native oxide planar waveguides
Author :
Luo, Y. ; Hall, D.C. ; Kou, L. ; Bium, O. ; Hou, H. ; Steingart, L. ; Jackson, J.H.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. Eng., Notre Dame Univ., IN, USA
Abstract :
We have used prism coupling measurements to study the Al dependence of the refractive index in wet thermal native oxides of Al xGa1-xAs for Al compositions x=0.3 to 0.97, and found that a suitable index variation (Δn⩾0.06 for x=0.4 to 0.8) exists for achieving waveguiding within the native oxide layers themselves. Native oxide planar waveguides are fabricated by fully oxidizing AlGaAs semiconductor heterostructures. By enabling waveguiding within AlGaAs native oxides, the large propagation distance allows the characterization of spectral absorption and interface scattering loss mechanisms not readily measured via thin film transmission measurements. We present loss measurement data on a multimode two-layer (single heterostructure) waveguide
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; aluminium compounds; gallium arsenide; optical losses; optical planar waveguides; oxidation; refractive index; AlxGa1-xAs heterostructure; AlGaAs; FTIR spectra; electric field distribution; interface scattering loss; large propagation distance; loss measurement; mode confinement; multimode two-layer waveguide; native oxide planar waveguides; optical properties; prism coupling measurements; refractive index; single heterostructure waveguide; spectral absorption; wet thermal native oxides; Absorption; Loss measurement; Optical films; Optical refraction; Optical scattering; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Planar waveguides; Refractive index; Semiconductor waveguides;
Conference_Titel :
LEOS '99. IEEE Lasers and Electro-Optics Society 1999 12th Annual Meeting
Conference_Location :
San Francisco, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-5634-9
DOI :
10.1109/LEOS.1999.813607
