Wavelength tunable distributed Bragg reflector laser integrated with electro-absorption modulator by a combined method of selective area growth and quantum well intermixing - art. no. 68240N

Wavelength tunable electro-absorption modulated distributed Bragg reflector lasers (TEMLs) are promising light source in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) optical fiber communication system due to high modulation speed, small chirp, low drive voltage, compactness and fast wavelength tuning ability. Thus, increased the transmission capacity, the functionality and the flexibility are provided. Materials with bandgap difference as large as 250nm have been integrated on the same wafer by a combined technique of selective area growth (SAG) and quantum well intermixing (QWI), which supplies a flexible and controllable platform for the need of photonic integrated circuits (PIC). A TEML has been fabricated by this technique for the first time. The component has superior characteristics as following: threshold current of 37mA, output power of 3.5mW at 100mA injection and 0V modulator bias voltage, extinction ratio of more than 20 dB with modulator reverse voltage from 0V to 2V when coupled into a single mode fiber, and wavelength tuning range of 4.4nm covering 6 100-GHz WDM channels. A clearly open eye diagram is observed when the integrated EAM is driven with a 10-Gb/s electrical NRZ signal. A good transmission characteristic is exhibited with power penalties less than 2.2 dB at a bit error ratio (BER) of 10(-10) after 44.4 km standard fiber transmission.

Electronic structure and optical gain saturation of InAs1-xNx/GaAs quantum dots

The electronic band structures and optical gains of InAs1-xNx/GaAs pyramid quantum dots (QDs) are calculated using the ten-band k . p model and the valence force field method. The optical gains are calculated using the zero-dimensional optical gain formula with taking into consideration of both homogeneous and inhomogeneous broadenings due to the size fluctuation of quantum dots which follows a normal distribution. With the variation of QD sizes and nitrogen composition, it can be shown that the nitrogen composition and the strains can significantly affect the energy levels especially the conduction band which has repulsion interaction with nitrogen resonant state due to the band anticrossing interaction. It facilitates to achieve emission of longer wavelength (1.33 or 1.55 mu m) lasers for optical fiber communication system. For QD with higher nitrogen composition, it has longer emission wavelength and less detrimental effect of higher excited state transition, but nitrogen composition can affect the maximum gain depending on the factors of transition matrix element and the Fermi-Dirac distributions for electrons in the conduction bands and holes in the valence bands respectively. For larger QD, its maximum optical gain is greater at lower carrier density, but it is slowly surpassed by smaller QD as carrier concentration increases. Larger QD can reach its saturation gain faster, but this saturation gain is smaller than that of smaller QD. So the trade-off between longer wavelength, maximum optical, saturation gain, and differential gain must be considered to select the appropriate QD size according to the specific application requirement. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3143025]

Kinetic Monte Carlo simulation of semiconductor quantum dot growth

Performing an event-based continuous kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulation, We investigate the growth conditions which are important to form semiconductor quantum dot (QD) in molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) system. The simulation results provide a detailed characterization of the atomic kinetic effects. The KMC simulation is also used to explore the effects of periodic strain to the epitaxy growth of QD. The simulation results are in well qualitative agreement with experiments.

Optical and electrical investigation of low dimensional self-assembled InAs quantum dot field effect transistors

Self-assembled InAs QD dot-in-a-well (DWELL) structures were grown on GaAs substrate by MBE system, and heterojunction modulation-doped field effect transistor (MODFET) was fabricated. The optical properties of the samples show that the photoluminescence of InAs/GaAs self-assembled quantum dot (SAQD) is at 1.265 mu m at 300 K. The temperature-dependence of the abnormal redshift of InAs SAQD wavelength with the increasing temperature was observed, which is closely related with the inhomogeneous size distribution of the InAs quantum dot. According to the electrical measurement, high electric field current-voltage characteristic of the MODFET device were obtained. The embedded InAs QD of the samples can be regard as scattering centers to the vicinity of the channel electrons. The transport property of the electrons in GaAs channel will be modulated by the QD due to the Coulomb interaction. It has been proposed that a MODFET embedded with InAs QDs presents a novel type of field effect photon detector.

Temperature and power-density-dependent inter-shell energy states in InAs/GaAs quantum dots

We have investigated the evolution of exciton state filling in InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) structures as a function of the excitation power density by using rnicro-photoluminescence spectroscopy at different temperatures. In addition to the emission bands of exciton recombination corresponding to the atom-like S, P and D, etc. shells of QDs, it was observed that some extra states V between the S and P shells, and D' between the P and D shells appear in the spectra with increasing number of excitons occupying the QDs at a certain temperature. The emergence of these inter-shell excitonic levels is power density and temperature dependent, which is an experimental demonstration of strong exciton-exciton exchange interaction, state hybridization, and coupling of a multi-exciton system in QDs. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Theoretical analysis of the bandgap for the intermixed GaInP/AlGaInP quantum wells

Compositional distribution of the quantum well and barrier after quantum well intermixing for GaInP/AlGaInP system was theoretically analyzed on the basis of atom diffusion law. With the compositional distribution result, the valence subband structure of the intermixed quantum well was calculated on the basis of 6x6 Luttinger-Kohn Hamiltonian, including spin-orbit splitting effects. TO get more accurate results in the calculation, a full 6-band problem was solved without axial approximation, which had been widely used in the Luttinger-Kohn model to simplify the computational efforts, since there was a strong warping in the GaInP valence band. At last, the bandgap energy of the intermixed quantum well was obtained and the calculation result is of much importance in the analysis of quantum well intermixing experiments.

GIANT CAPACITANCE OSCILLATIONS RELATED TO THE QUANTUM CAPACITANCE IN GAAS ALAS SUPERLATTICES

We have observed periodic current and capacitance oscillations with increasing bias on doped GaAs/AlAs superlattices at a temperature of 77 K. The maximum of the observed capacitance is larger than usual geometric capacitances in superlattices, being comparable to the quantum capacitance of the two-dimensional (2D) electron system proposed by Luryi. A model based on well-to-well sequential resonant tunneling due to the movement of the boundary between the electric field domains in superlattice was proposed to explain the origin of the giant capacitance oscillations. It was demonstrated that the capacitance at the peaks of capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics reflects the quantum capacitance of the space-charge region at the boundary between the domains (a novel 2D electron system).

OPTICAL BISTABILITY IN A GAAS/GAALAS MULTI-QUANTUM-WELL (MQW) SELF-ELECTROOPTIC EFFECT DEVICE (SEED)

Based on a GaAs/GaAlAs MQW pin structure grown by a home-made MBE system, we have successfully fabricated a SEED. The optical bistability and related properties of the device under symmetric operation (S-SEED) and asymmetric operation are reported.

Collective excitations in the coupled quantum wires

The dielectric response of an electron system composed of an array of parallel quantum wires with weak coupling and strong coupling are studied, and the dispersions of the collective excitations and the single particle excitations (SPE) as functions of wave-vectors are given. It is found that for the nearly isolated quantum wires with several subbands occupation, there are a series of intra-subband collective excitations between corresponding intra-subband SPE spectra. There also exist inter-subband collective excitations when q(x) not equal 0 (q(x) is the wave-vector component in the modulation direction), whose energies are close by the corresponding inter-subband SPE spectra. The energy of the intra-subband mode decreases and that of inter-subband mode increases with q(x) increasing. The collective excitation dispersions show obvious anisotropy in the 1D quantum limit. The calculated results agree with the experiment well. The coupling between quantum wires affects markedly both the collective and single-particle excitations spectra. The system changes to a near-two-dimensional electron system gradually with increasing coupling.

Collective excitations in coupled quantum wells

The dielectric response of a modulated three-dimensional electron system composed of a periodic array of quantum wells with weak coupling and strong coupling are studied, and the dispersions of the collective excitations and the single particle excitations as functions of wave vectors are given. It is found that for the nearly isolated multiple-quantum-well case with several subbands occupation, there is a three-dimensional-like plasmon when q(z)=0 (q(z) is the wave-vector component in the superlattice axis). There also exist intersubband collective excitations in addition to one intra-subband mode when q(z) not equal 0. The intra-subband mode has a linear dispersion relation with q(//) (the wave-vector component perpendicular to the superlattice axis) when q(//) is small. The inter-subband modes cover wider ranges in q(//) with increasing values of q(z). The energies of inter-subband collective excitations are close by the corresponding inter-subband single-particle excitation spectra. The collective excitation dispersions show obvious anisotropy in the 2D quantum limit. The calculated results agree with the experiment. The coupling between quantum wells affects markedly both the collective excitations and the single particle excitations spectra. The system shows gradually a near-three-dimensional electron gas character with increasing coupling. Copyright (C) 1996 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd

Electronic states and magnetotransport in quantum waveguides with nonuniform magnetic fields

The electronic states and magnetotransport properties of quantum waveguides (QW's) in the presence of nonuniform magnetic fields perpendicular to the QW plane are investigated theoretically. It is found that the magnetoconductance of those structures as a function of Fermi energy exhibits stepwise variation or square-wave-like oscillations, depending on the specific distributions (both in magnitude and direction) of nonuniform magnetic fields in QW's. We have investigated the dual magnetic strip structures and three magnetic strip structures. The character of the magnetotransport is closely related to the effective magnetic potential and the energy-dispersion spectrum of electron in the structures. It is found that dispersion relations seem to be combined by different sets of dispersion curves that belong to different individual magnetic subwaveguides. The magnetic effective potential leads to the coupling of states and the substantial distortion of the original dispersion curves at the interfaces in which the abrupt change of magnetic fields appears. Magnetic scattering states are created. Only in some three magnetic strip structures, these scattering states produce the dispersion relations with oscillation structures superimposed on the bulk Landau levels. It is the oscillatory behavior in dispersions that leads to the occurrence of square-wave-like modulations in conductance.

The scattering matrix method for quantum waveguides

A scattering matrix method for investigating the electron transport in quantum waveguides is presented. By dividing the structure into a number of transverse slices, the global scattering matrix is obtained by the composition of the individual scattering matrices associated with each interface. Complicated geometries and inhomogeneous external potentials are included in the formulation. It is shown that the proposed scattering matrix method possesses many advantages over the traditional mode-matching and transfer matrix methods, especially in treating the electron wave propagation in complicated geometries. Justification for the method is provided by the unitarity of the calculated scattering matrix, and the consistency of the results with those obtained by the recursive Green's function method.

Study of GSMBE growth and characteristics of high-quality strained In0.63Ga0.37As/InP quantum wells

High-quality compressively strained In0.63Ga0.37As/InP quantum wells with different well widths (1-11 nm) have been grown coherently on InP substrates using a home-made gas source molecular beam epitaxy (GSMBE) system. The indium composition in the wells of the sample was determined by means of high-resolution X-ray diffraction and its computer simulation. it is found that the exciton transition energies determined by photoluminescence (PL) at 10 K are in good agreement with those calculated using a deformation potential model. Sharp and intense peaks for each well can be well resolved in the 10 K PL spectra. For wells narrower than 4 nm, the line width of the PL peaks are smaller than the theoretical values of the line-width broadening due to 1 hit interface fluctuation, showing that the interface fluctuation of our sample is within 1 ML. For wells of 7 and 9 nm, the PL peak widths are as low as 4.5 meV.

Electronic structures of T-shaped quantum wires

In this paper, we propose the periodic boundary condition which can be applied to a variety of semiconductor nanostructures to overcome che difficulty of solving Schrodinger equation under the natural boundary condition. When the barrier width is large enough. the average of the maximum and minimum of energy band under the periodic boundary condition is very close to the energy level obtained under the natural boundary condition. As an example, we take the GaAs/Ga1-xAlxAs system, If the width of the Ga1-xAlxAs barrier is 200 Angstrom, the average of the maximum and minimum of energy band of the GaAs/Ga1-xAlxAs superlattices is very close to the energy level of the GaAs/Ga1-xAlxAs quantum wells (QWs). We give the electronic structure effective mass calculation of T-shaped quantum wires (T-QWRs) under the periodic boundary condition, The lateral confinement energies E1D-2D of electrons and holes, the energy difference between T-QWRs and QWs, are precisely determined.

Magnetophonon resonance in the energy relaxation of electrons in a quantum well

The magnetophonon resonance effect in the energy relaxation rate is studied theoretically for a quasi-two-dimensional electron gas in a semiconductor quantum well. An electron-temperature model is adopted to describe the coupled electron-phonon system. The energy relaxation time, derived from the energy relaxation rate, is found to display an oscillatory behavior as the magnetic-field strength changes, and reaches minima when the optical phonon frequency equals integer multiples of the electron cyclotron frequency. The theoretical results are compared with a recent experiment, and a qualitative agreement is found.