Anisotropic electroabsorption and optical modulation in InGaAs/InAlAs multiple quantum well structures

The first measurements to be made of large anistropic electroabsorption and modulation of long-wavelength light propagating along the plane of InGaAs/InAlAs multiple quantum well (MQW) structures grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) are reported. Photocurrent response of waveguide p-i-n diodes is studied for incident light polarization parallel and perpendicular to the MQW layers. Photocurrent increase with reverse bias throughout the entire photoresponse spectrum is observed for both polarizations. The MQW p-in optical modulator shows a capacitance-limited pulse response of 250 ps and the modulation depth is 14 percent.     

A semi-empirical model for electroabsorption in GaAs/AlGaAsmultiple quantum well modulator structures

A semiempirical model for electroabsorption in GaAs/AlGaAs quantum wells that is simple and has sufficient accuracy to make it suitable as a fast design tool for multiple quantum well (MQW) optical modulators is proposed. The model is based on a higher-order perturbation approach which includes all bound solutions of the unperturbed Hamiltonian. To complete the model, semiempirical relationships are set up for both the zero-field absorption peak and the half-width at half-maximum (HWHM) values of the heavy-hole exciton. Comparison with extensive experimental data shows a remarkable agreement for a range of wells between 5 and 20 nm and for photon energies on the long wavelength side of the absorption peak. These wavelength and well-size ranges coincide with those needed for practical design     

Fabrication of electroabsorption optical modulators using laserdisordered GaInAs/GaInAsP multiquantum well structures

Electroabsorption optical modulators have been fabricated on GaInAs/GaInAsP multiquantum well structures whose bandgap had been increased by laser photoabsorption-induced disordering. Modulation depths of 20 dB have been obtained in material which has been bandgap blue shifted by as much as 120 nm, while samples shifted by 80 nm gave depths as high as 27 dB     

Fiber optic applications of multiple quantum well electroabsorption modulators

Electroabsorption modulators (eam) have proved to be very attractive both as optical sources (monolithically integrated NRZ transmitters andrz pulse generators) as well as for very fast signal processing (demultiplexing, regeneration, wavelength conversion,...). Their design criteria, technology and implementation in future networks are reviewed, and the main issues are discussed.     

Study of the optical and structural properties of multi quantum well structures grown on high-index surfaces

The MOVPE overgrowth of high [0 1¯ 1]-oriented ridges confined at sides by facets related to {n 1 1} crystallographic planes is reported. We studied the influence of the side tilt on the thickness of the AlGaAs and GaAs epitaxial layers grown under the condition of the kinetic growth mode. The multi quantum well (MQW) structures were prepared on the sides of ridges tilted at 54.7°, 45° and 30° to (1 0 0). The sidewall surface morphologies before and after epitaxial growth were evaluated and compared. We observed no tendency towards planarization towards a neighbouring high-index crystallographic plane, such as (2 1 1) and (3 1 1). We also showed that the quantum wells of the MQW structure make a smooth transition over the edge between the top surface and the facet as both AlGaAs and GaAs grew at similar rates on the surfaces.     

Thermoelectric properties of symmetric and asymmetric double quantum well structures

The electronic states and carrier transport in (100)PbTe/Pb _{1 ? x} Eu _x Te double quantum wells are theoretically analyzed. The dependences of the mobility and Seebeck coefficient on the thickness of the internal barrier in symmetric and asymmetric structures are investigated. It was found that at great distance between the wells even small violation of the structure symmetry and essential reconstruction of electron wave functions results in suppression of intersubband scattering with carriers transfer between the wells and provides the correct limit to isolated quantum well in kinetic coefficients. Some possibilities of increasing the thermoelectric power factor are found, and a suitable set of structure parameters is calculated within the proposed model.     

Monolithic integration of multiple quantum well DFB lasers and electroabsorption modulators

Advanced fibre optics telecommunication systems rely on high performance components amongst which photonic integrated circuits (PICs) play a major role. In particular, there has been a growing need for low chirp optical sources, such as externally modulated distributed feedback (DFB) lasers. In this paper, the various monolithic integration schemes of multiple quantum well DFB lasers and electro-absorption modulators are reviewed and typical applications of these devices are briefly presented.     

正切平方势阱中线性和三阶非线性光学吸收系数的计算

研究了正切平方势阱中的子带光吸收,用量子力学中的密度矩阵算符理论和迭代法推导出了正切平方势阱中线性和三阶非线性光学吸收系数的解析表达式,并以典型的GaAs/AlGaAs正切平方量子阱为例进行数值计算。计算结果表明,该势阱中的势阱宽度b、势阱深度V₀和入射光强I对吸收系数有很大影响。随着势阱宽度b的增加和势阱深度V₀的减小,总吸收系数的峰值减小并且向低能方向移动。随着入射光强I的增加,总吸收系数会减小,出现了光饱和吸收现象,同时吸收谱线的线宽随着入射光强的增大而增大。     

Large electroabsorption effect in GaInAs/InP multiple quantum well(MQW) optical modulator grown by OMVPE

To make short, high-speed electroabsorption modulators, it is necessary to use a material and device structure that displays a large change in absorption coefficient, Δα. The authors report a device with Δα=7800 cm^-1, which provides an on/off ratio of 44:1 at λ=1.6 μm with a drive voltage of 10 V     

Carrier screening of electric field and electroabsorption saturation in InGaAs-GaAs quantum well structure

Saturation of the electroabsorption is obtained in the quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) at low optical intensities and low electric fields, in a strained InGaAs-GaAs quantum well modulator structure operating at the exciton energy. This effect is attributed to carrier-induced screening of the internal electric field, and its implications for devices using the QCSE are discussed.<>     

Ultrafast optical nonlinearity by virtual charge polarization inDC-biased quantum well structures

An optical nonlinearity due to virtual charge polarization in a quantum-well structure biased by a DC electric field is proposed and discussed. The switching time of the nonlinearity is expected to be extremely short, on the order of 100 fs. An effective degenerative four-wave χ³ parameter is estimated to be 1.0×10 ^-9 [esu] for a graded gap AlGaAs quantum well and a detuning energy of pump light, 35 meV. The nonlinearity is observable and quite useful for designing an all-optical and ultrafast optical gate     

复介质光量子阱光传输特性的增益效应

利用传输矩阵法,研究复介质光量子阱光传输特性的增益效应机制,结果表明复介质对光量子阱内部局域电场和分立共振透射峰的透射率均具有增益放大作用:复介质光量子阱与实介质光量子阱一样,内部也存在很强的局域电场以及透射谱中也出现分立的共振透射峰,但复介质光量子阱的内部局域电场和分立共振透射峰会出现增益放大现象。在光量子阱的组成介质A中掺入具有增益效应的激活性杂质时,光量子阱的内部局域电场首先随着激活性杂质含量的增加而放大增强,但增益放大到极大值后又开始衰减下降,而且不同入射光波长,光量子阱内部局域电场增益放大的极大值及其对应的激活杂质含量不同,其中对处于短波方向的光入射时内部局域电场对激活杂质含量的响应最灵敏最高,而且内部局域电场增益放大的极大值最大,对处于长波方向的光入射时内部局域电场对激活杂质含量的响应灵敏度最低,内部局域电场增益放大的极大值最小。复介质光量子阱光传输特性的增益效应机制,对新型光学滤波器、光学放大器和激光器等光学器件的理论研究与实际设计,以及光量子阱光传输特性的内在机制研究等,均具有积极的指导意义。     

Experimental determination of electroabsorption in GaAs/Al0.32Ga0.68As multiple quantum well structures as functionof well width

Electroabsorption in GaAs/Al_0.32Ga_0.68As multiple quantum well structures was experimentally studied for quantum well widths in the range 50-260 Å. The maximum obtainable change in absorption coefficient was found to increase monotonically with decreasing well width at the cost of increasing electric field     

Optical properties and defects in GaAsN and InGaAsN films and quantum well structures

Photoluminescence and microcathodoluminescence spectra of thick-film GaAsN and InGaAsN structures and GaAs/InGaAsN, AlGaAs/InGaAsN quantum wells (QWs) were studied for InGaAsN layers with low nitrogen concentration of 0.35–0.5%. It is shown that in thick-film structures the bandedge luminescence intensity is strongly decreased in the row homoepitaxial GaAs, GaAsN on GaAs buffer, GaAsN, GaAs on GaAsN buffer, InGaAsN which correlates with the increasing concentration of electron traps with activation energy 0.53–0.55 eV. The type of defect bands in the thick-film structures was found to strongly depend on composition of the layers. For the GaAs/InGaAsN QW structures the intensity of luminescence was found to be more than an order of magnitude higher than in InGaAsN single films.     

Multiple quantum well optical modulator structures using surfaceacoustic wave induced Stark effect

Multiple-quantum-well (MQW) optical modulator structures using the quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) manifested by the application of an electric field induced by a propagating surface acoustic wave (SAW) are proposed. The magnitudes of the parallel E_∥ and perpendicular E_⊥ electric-field components are computed to determine the electroabsorption and change of index of refraction for the AlGaAs-GaAs system. The proposed structures are shown to be less cumbersome than conventional p-i-n configurations used to impress E. In addition, an enhanced performance Bragg modulator/switch which utilizes the QCSE as well as the acoustic phase grating produced by the SAW beam is described     

Length dependence of the saturation characteristics in 1.5-μmmultiple quantum well optical amplifiers

The dependence on amplifier length of gain and gain saturation characteristics in 1.5-μm multiple-quantum-well optical amplifiers is reported. Gain measurements are presented for amplifiers with lengths of 200 μm to 1 mm, and a simple model is introduced which relates gain and saturation characteristics to the amplifier length. The 1-mm-long device has superb properties, with a gain of 25.2 dB and a saturation output power of 40 mW     

Monte Carlo analysis of the carrier relaxation processes in linear and parabolic-GRINSCH quantum well laser structures

The carrier relaxation process is widely acknowledged to have a strong bearing on the modulation limit of quantum well lasers. As a first and crucial step toward achieving a better understanding of this phenomenon, we have developed a numerical technique to study such processes in graded-index separate confinement heterostructure quantum well laser structures having an arbitrary grading profile. We base our approach on ensemble Monte Carlo simulation of the carrier transport in the 3-D graded-index region and in the 2-D quantum well. We also introduce a technique to handle the carrier capture and re-emission processes within the Monte Carlo method. The results obtained from our calculations for a number of structures with quantum well sizes 50-100 Å indicate that the overall carrier capture time is about 5-7.5 ps under low injection condition for the linearly graded structures, and significantly longer for the parabolically graded structures. On the other hand, the carrier capture efficiency is found to be higher for the parabolic graded-index structures. We also compare our calculations to published experiments and find good agreement     

High accuracy numerical solutions for band structures in strained quantum well semiconductor optical amplifiers

In this paper,we have calculated the band structure of strained quantum well (QW) semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) by using plane wave expansion method (PWEM) and finite difference method (FDM),respectively.The difference between these two numerical methods is presented.First,the solution of Schr(o)dinger's equation in a conduction band for parabolic potential well is used to check the validity and accuracy of these two numerical methods.For the PWEM,its stability and computational speed are investigated as a function of the number of plane waves and the period of QW.For FDM,effects of mesh size and QW width on its accuracy and calculation time are discussed.Finally,we find that the computational speed of FDM generally is faster than that of PWEM.However,the PWEM is more efficient than the FDM when wider SOAs are needed to be calculated.Therefore,to obtain high accuracy and efficient numerical solutions for band structures,numerical methods should be selected depending on required accuracy,device structure and further applications.     

Modulation of absorption in field-effect quantum well structures

Experimental and theoretical investigations of the absorption in a single-modulation-doped quantum well (QW) used as conducting channel of a field-effect transistor are presented. By applying a voltage to the gate, the electron concentration can be varied between 0 and ~10¹² cm^-2. The continuous transition can be optically followed from an undoped to a highly doped QW. Effects of band filling are observed, along with renormalized effects at the first subband edge and electrostatic effects at the higher ones. It is shown that optical techniques can give in situ information on the electron density and temperature as well as on the electrostatic fields inside field-effect structures     

Structural and optical properties of heterostructures with InAs quantum dots in an InGaAsN quantum well grown by molecular-beam epitaxy

Results obtained in a study of the structural and optical properties of GaAs-based heterostructures with InAs quantum dot layers overgrown with InGaAsN quantum wells are presented. Transmission electron microscopy has been applied to analyze how the thickness of the InGaAsN layer and the content and distribution of nitrogen in this layer affect the size of nanoinclusions and the nature and density of structural defects. It is shown that the size of InAs nanodomains and the magnitude of the lattice mismatch in structures containing nitrogen exceed those in nitrogen-free structures. A correlation between the luminescence wavelength and the size and composition of nanodomains is demonstrated. Furthermore, a correlation between the emission intensity and defect density in the structure is revealed.