IEICE Trans - 60 nm Wavelength Range Polarization-Insensitive 1.55 µm Electroabsorption Modulator Using Tensile-Strained Pre-Biased Multiple Quantum Well

60 nm Wavelength Range Polarization-Insensitive 1.55 µm Electroabsorption Modulator Using Tensile-Strained Pre-Biased Multiple Quantum Well

Masaki KATO  Yoshiaki NAKANO

Publication
IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Electronics   Vol.E83-C   No.6   pp.927-935
Publication Date: 2000/06/25
Online ISSN:
DOI:
Print ISSN: 0916-8516
Type of Manuscript: Special Section PAPER (Special Issue on Advanced Optical Devices for Next Generation High-Speed Communication Systems and Photonic Networks)
Category: Switches and Novel Devices
Keyword:
multiple-quantum-well electroabsorption modulator,  polarization-insensitive operation,  tensile-strained quantum well,  potential-tailored quantum well,  molecular beam epitaxy,

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Summary:
We studied theoretically and experimentally an InGaAs/InAlAs/InP polarization-insensitive multiple quantum well (MQW) electroabsorption (EA) modulator operating over a very wide wavelength range in 1.55 µm wavelength region. One of the simplest possible potential-tailored quantum well, "pre-biased" quantum well (PBQW) is used to achieve wide-wavelength polarization insensitivity. PBQW is basically a rectangular quantum well with a thin barrier inserted near one edge of well. This thin barrier effectively introduces "pre-bias" to a rectangular quantum well and the same amount of Stark shift is achieved for electron-heavy hole and electron-light hole transition energies. By incorporating tensile strain into PBQW, polarization-insensitive modulation is achieved over 60 nm wavelength range, from 1510 nm to 1570 nm. This MQW-EA modulator plays an important role in wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmission and switching systems.