Evaluation of the tolerance of asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulators with respect to realistic operating conditions

This paper is concerned with asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulators (AFPM´s) that use the electroabsorptive effect in GaAs-AlGaAs multiple quantum wells (MQW) to yield optical modulation. Although these devices may attain excellent peak-performance characteristics, their resonant nature makes them susceptible to variations in manufacture and to the operational conditions and this will ultimately limit their actual practical implementation. We examine in detail the tolerance of an AFPM to concurrent fluctuations of the main parameters that affect the performance, and evaluate the limitations of the current state-of-the-art. Thus we develop a procedure by which the overall tolerance of resonant structures may be realistically calculated, and identify a parameter of merit that enables an optimization in that respect. A number of ways to minimize the effect on the final performance are also addressed