Analysis and design of surface-normal Fabry-Perot electrooptic modulators

Author

Yan, Ran-Hong ; Simes, Robert J. ; Coldren, Larry A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Volume

25

Issue

11

fYear

1989

fDate

11/1/1989 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2272

Lastpage

2280

Abstract

Design equations relating the refractive index shift, absorption change, cavity length, and grating properties of Fabry-Perot modulators are derived. Experimental results of reflection modulators with GaAs/AlGaAs multiple-quantum-well active regions are given. The design equations are applied by investigating the optimization of the reflectivity modulation and the sensitivity of the performance on the operating conditions. The modulation is found to be determined mainly by the index shift and is less sensitive to the accompanying absorption change for a chirp greater than one where the chirp is defined as the ratio of the real part of index change to the imaginary part. Modulation can also be obtained via absorption modulation when the chirp is small. However, the residual loss in the cavity with multiple quantum wells should be kept lower than 500 cm^-1

Keywords

diffraction gratings; electro-optical devices; optical losses; optical modulation; refractive index; semiconductor quantum wells; Fabry-Perot electrooptic modulators; GaAs-AlGaAs; absorption change; absorption modulation; cavity length; chirp; grating properties; multiple-quantum-well active regions; optimization; reflection modulators; refractive index shift; residual loss; surface-normal; Absorption; Chirp modulation; Design optimization; Equations; Fabry-Perot; Gallium arsenide; Gratings; Quantum well devices; Reflection; Refractive index;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.42056

Filename

42056