InGaAs-AlGaAs-GaAs strained-layer quantum-well heterostructuresquare ring lasers

The processing and optical characteristics of an InGaAs-AlGaAs-GaAs strained-layer quantum-well heterostructure square ring laser (4 μm width and 50-μm/side length) with two output waveguides and two narrow physical gap couplers are described. The ridges and the total internal reflection (TIR) mirrors of the square ring lasers are fabricated by two photolithographic steps with a single SiO₂ mask and planarized with polyimide such that the TIR mirrors are etched through the active region while the ridge waveguides are not. Single longitudinal mode operation is observed with a side mode suppression ratio of 20 dB. Asymmetric characteristics of emission spectra from the two output waveguides demonstrates that the square ring lasers operate in traveling wave modes     

Total reflection mirrors fabricated on silica waveguides with focused ion beam

Efficient total reflection mirrors are fabricated on silica-based waveguides by direct milling with a focused ion beam. To reduce the excess losses of the mirrors, a two-step milling technique is employed that reduces the roughness of the mirror surface while maintaining a high milling rate. A focused ion beam is used to fabricate low-loss mirrors with small excess losses of about 1.0 dB.     

Improvements in mode-locked semiconductor diode lasers using monolithically integrated passive waveguides made by quantum-well intermixing

By using the technique of quantum-well intermixing (QWI), monolithically integrated passive, and active waveguides can be fabricated. It is shown that mode-locked extended cavity semiconductor lasers with integrated low-loss passive waveguides display superior performance to devices in which the entire waveguide is active: the threshold current is a factor of 3-5 lower, the pulsewidth is reduced from 10.2 ps in the all active laser to 3.5 ps in the extended cavity device and there is a decrease in the free-running jitter level from 15 to 6 ps (10 kHz-10 MHz).     

Low-threshold CW operation of square-shaped semiconductor ring lasers (orbiter lasers)

The CW operation of square-shaped semiconductor ring lasers is demonstrated with a threshold current as low as 6 mA. The ring resonator consists of straight waveguides and four total reflection mirrors. The lasers are fabricated using Br/sub 2/ dry etching on an InGaAs/GaAs strained single-quantum-well graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure wafer. The low-threshold CW operation is due to the high differential gain of the wafer and the low-loss total reflection mirror.<>     

Quantum-dot microlasers

Edge-emitting short-cavity lasers with deeply-etched Bragg mirrors were fabricated on a GaInAs/AlGaAs laser structure with a single active layer of self-organised GaInAs quantum-dots. Continuous wave operation has been achieved down to cavity lengths of 16 μm with a minimum threshold current of 1.2 mA for 30 μm-long devices     

GaAs integrated optical circuits by wet chemical etching

An integrated optical circuit containing a laser, passive waveguide, and extra-cavity detector is described. These devices are fabricated from AlxGa1-xAs layers grown by liquid-phase epitaxy. Reflectors are formed by a two-step preferential etch procedure. For proper laser orientation on {100} wafers, the mirrors are found to be oblique, tapered so as to enhance coupling into the underlying passive waveguide; this increases the efficiency of radiation transfer to the detector. Device operation with high differential transfer efficiency and low threshold has been achieved; e.g., for devices with one etched mirror and one cleaved mirror, ηt= 16 percent andJ_{t} = 2.4kA/cm², whereas these values areeta_{t} = 6.5percent and Jt= 3.0 kA/cm²for devices with two etched mirrors. Other orientations on {100} and {110} wafers have also been investigated. The reflectivity of the etched mirrors is small,R_{e} simeq 1-2percent, but transfer efficiencies into the external passive waveguide as large asT = 50percent have been observed. The effect of small Reon device performance is examined both experimentally and theoretically. The fabrication of ribbed interconnections between active circuit components is also described.     

Quantum-well laser with integrated passive waveguide fabricated byneutral impurity disordering

Double quantum-well lasers have been fabricated with an integrated low-loss waveguide in which the quantum wells have been intermixed by neutral impurity disordering. Threshold currents of devices with integrated 600-μm passive guides show an increase of less than 10% over normal Fabry-Perot lasers of the same active length, confirming that the propagation loss in the passive wavelength is significantly reduced by disordering to 4.5±2 cm^-1. Comparison with unimplanted devices suggests that the implanted dopant also passivates the waveguide electrically     

Realization of novel low-loss monolithically integrated passive waveguide mode converters

The novel design and fabrication of monolithically integrated passive waveguide mode converters (WMCs), realized through the utilization of the reactive ion-etch lag (RIE Lag) phenomenon, is reported. The low-loss GaAs-AlGaAs WMCs have been characterized over a wavelength range of 900-940 nm, resulting in TE-TM (TM-TE) mode conversion with efficiencies of greater than 96% and low-loss devices with conversion lengths as short as 150 /spl mu/m. The properties and characteristics of the fully integrated WMCs, fabricated with a single masking and etch process, are in agreement with theoretical predictions.     

High-speed modulation of InGaAs-GaAs strained-layer multiple-quantum-well lasers fabricated by chemically assisted ion-beam etching

Graded-index separate-confinement heterostructure (GRINSCH) strained-layer lasers with five In/sub 0.3/Ga/sub 0.7/As quantum wells have been fabricated with cavity lengths from 50 to 400 mu m using chemically assisted ion-beam etching (CAIBE) to form the laser mirrors. The dry-etching process is thermally assisted, which gives a reproducible etching rate. A minimum threshold-current value is observed at a cavity length of 50 mu m, showing that the multiquantum-well design is optimum for short-cavity lasers. A relaxation oscillation frequency of 10 GHz and a -3 dB bandwidth of 15 GHz have been measured on a 200*10 mu m mesa-structure device.<>     

Stacked polymeric multimode waveguide arrays for two-dimensional optical interconnects

Two-dimensional (2-D) polymeric multimode waveguide arrays with two reflection-mirrors have been fabricated for optical interconnects between 2-D arrayed vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and detectors. Contact printing lithography was adopted for simple and low-cost process using ultraviolet-curable epoxy-based polymers. Fabricated waveguides were diced of the same size and stacked one by one with lateral positional errors less than /spl plusmn/20 /spl mu/m. Two kinds of mirrors were fabricated: single-reflection mirror and double-reflection mirror. Double-reflected mirrors resulted in lower losses with 1.2 dB than single reflected mirrors with 2.1 dB. The average insertion losses of 16-channel arrayed waveguides with two single-reflection mirrors and with two double-reflection-mirrors were measured to be 6.1 and 4.4 dB for 6-cm-long waveguides at a wavelength of 830 nm, respectively. The crosstalk between the waveguides was less than -25 dB. The characteristics of the waveguide arrays are good enough for applications to optical interconnects.     

Realization of an Ultracompact Low-Loss Photonic Crystal Corner Mirror

We report on the realization and characterization of an ultracompact, low-loss, and broadband corner mirror based on photonic crystals (PCs). By modifying the boundary layers of the PC region, extra losses of dB per corner mirror are achieved for transverse-electronic polarization for silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides fabricated by electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching. Dimensions of the PC corner mirror are less than, which are only about one tenth of conventional waveguide corner mirrors.     

Axial mode selectivity in active distributed-reflector for dynamic-single-mode lasers

The theory for design of active distributed-reflector lasers is discussed from the point of view of dynamic-single-mode (DSM) characteristics. Optimum conditions and fabrication tolerances of coupling coefficient, cavity length, length and location of phase-shifted region, and the effect of the reflection at the end mirrors are discussed. Asymmetric active distributed-reflector laser with different coupling coefficients and lengths of two corrugation regions is also proposed to improve the efficiency of the front facet output.     

Edge-emitting GaInAs-AlGaAs microlasers

The fabrication and characteristics of edge-emitting microlasers with deeply etched distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) mirrors are presented. Using reactive ion etching, the mirrors are formed at both cavity ends of a ridge waveguide laser with an GaInAs-AlGaAs single-quantum-well active layer. The devices have continuous-wave threshold currents as low as 2 and 6 mA at cavity lengths of 80 and 40 μm, respectively. Lasing operation is achieved down to a length of 28 μm. Diffraction limited reflectivities >75% are obtained for third-order gratings, with two DBR periods     

InP-based short cavity lasers with 2D photonic crystal mirror

The authors have successfully fabricated in-plane emitting InP-based microlasers with cavity lengths of 600-100 μm. The required high reflectivity mirrors consist of a 2D ΓM-oriented triangular photonic crystal of air rods with a lattice constant of 350 nm. The lasers operate CW at room temperature with a threshold current of 29 mA and output power up to 4 mW for the shortest devices     

Monolithic integration in InGaAs-InGaAsP multiple-quantum-wellstructures using laser intermixing

The bandgap of InGaAs-InGaAsP multiple-quantum-well (MQW) material can be accurately tuned by photoabsorption-induced disordering (PAID), using a Nd:YAG laser, to allow lasers, modulators, and passive waveguides to be fabricated from a standard MQW structure. The process relies on optical absorption in the active region of the MQW to produce sufficient heat to cause interdiffusion between the wells and barriers. Bandgap shifts larger than 100 meV are obtainable using laser power densities of around 5 W·mm^-2 and periods of illumination of a few minutes to tens of minutes. This process provides an effective way of altering the emission wavelengths of lasers fabricated from a single epitaxial wafer. Blue shifts of up to 160 nm in the lasing spectra of both broad-area and ridge waveguide lasers are reported. The bandgap-tuned lasers are assessed in terms of threshold current density, internal quantum efficiency, and internal losses. The ON/OFF ratios of bandgap-tuned electroabsorption modulators were tested over a range of wavelengths, with modulation depths of 20 dB obtained from material which has been bandgap-shifted by 120 nm, while samples shifted by 80 nm gave modulation depths as high as 27 dB. Single-mode waveguide losses are as low as 5 dB·cm^-1 at 1550 mm. Selective-area disordering has been used in the fabrication of extended cavity lasers. The retention of good electrical and optical properties in intermixed material demonstrates that PAID is a promising technique for the integration of devices to produce photonic integrated circuits. A quantum-well intermixing technique using a pulsed laser is also demonstrated     

Chemically etched-mirror GaInAsP/InP lasers--Review

Detailed results on stripe GaxIn1-xAsyP1-y/InP lasers (lambda = 1.3 mum) with chemically etched-mirrors are reviewed. These devices are fabricated from GaInAsP/InP wafers grown by liquid phase epitaxy. A simple stripe laser structure with one etched mirror and one cleaved mirror is proposed. Monolithic passivation has been achieved using a Si3N4film and metal coatings on the etched facets. These processes not only increase the reflectivity of the etched mirrors, resulting in threshold currents even lower than uncoated cleaved devices, but also ease the problem of bonding of the chips on heat sinks. CW operation at room temperature has been achieved. Threshold currents of devices with 10 μm stripe electrodes were about 180-200 mA. Short cavity lasers and integrated monitoring detectors have also been demonstrated.     

16×16光开关微镜阵列

设计、制造和测试了一种实现16×16 MEMS光开关的高反射率、大角度静电扭转制动型微镜阵列.该阵列的微镜可进行90扭转并保持稳定的扭转状态以对入射光进行导向.针对微镜的扭转驱动特性,提出了相应的机电模型.通过单片集成光纤槽,实现了光纤.微镜.光纤的无源对准.测试结果表明,微镜反射率为93.1%～96.3%,最低插入损耗为2.1dB,另外,在经过15min的5～90Hz,3mm振幅的振动测试后,光开关的插入损耗的改变值仅为±0.01dB.     

Edge-emitting semiconductor microlasers with ultrashort-cavity anddry-etched high-reflectivity photonic microstructure mirrors

We demonstrate very compact low-threshold edge-emitting semiconductor lasers operating at a wavelength of 980 nm, in which periodic microstructure mirrors have been formed at both cavity ends by deep reactive ion etching. From a threshold analysis, we determined reflectivities of ~95% for the seven-period back reflector and ~80% for the three-period front mirror. Lasing has been achieved from 20-μm-long and 8-μm-wide devices exhibiting a current threshold of 7 mA. These are among the shortest in-plane electrically pumped lasers demonstrated so far. State-of-the-art electron beam lithography (EEL) and high-aspect ratio reactive ion etching (RIE) have been used for device fabrication     

Long-wavelength two-dimensional WDM vertical cavity surface-emitting laser arrays fabricated by nonplanar wafer bonding

We demonstrate the first long-wavelength two-dimensional wavelength-division-multiplexed vertical cavity surface-emitting laser array. The eight-channel single-mode array covers the C-band from 1532 to 1565 nm. The devices are fabricated using two separate active regions laterally integrated using nonplanar wafer bonding. We achieved single-mode powers up to 0.8 mW, 2-dB output power uniformity across the array, and sidemode suppression ratios in excess of 43 dB. This fabrication technique can be used to maintain the gain-peak and cavity-mode alignment across wide-band arrays and, with the use of nontraditional mirrors, can be extended to the fabrication of arrays covering the entire C-, S-, and L-bands as well as the 1310-nm transmission band.     

Integrated Small-Sized Semiconductor Ring Laser With Novel Retro-Reflector Cavity

We have successfully designed and fabricated 1.55-mum semiconductor ring lasers with novel parabolic mirror retro-reflector cavities. The parabolic mirror is designed by means of ray-tracing and finite-difference time-domain to optimize its shape and position. The fabricated devices, with a range of sizes down to an equivalent circular ring radius of 16 mum, operate in continuous-wave mode at room temperature. Threshold current of 22 mA and output power up to 140 muW have been achieved for the smallest device. These devices are suitable for high-speed all-optical signal processing and digital photonic functions.