Single-mode holey vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser with ultra-narrow beam divergence

We demonstrated oxide-confined 850-nm vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) with a two-dimensional petal-shaped holey structure composed of several annular-sector-shaped holes. Four types of devices with different hole numbers were designed and fabricated. The measured results showed that the larger hole number was beneficial to purifying the lasing mode, and realizing the single-mode operation. The side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) exceeded 30 dB throughout the entire drive current. Mode selective loss mechanism was used to explain the single-mode characteristic. The single-mode devices possessed good beam profiles, and the lowest divergence angle was as narrow as 3.2 degrees (full width at half maximum), attributed to the graded index profile and the shallow etching in the top distributed Bragg reflector (DBR).

Theoretical investigation on quantum well lasers with extremely low vertical beam divergence and low threshold current

A specially designed quantum well laser for achieving extremely low vertical beam divergence was reported and theoretically investigated. The laser structure was characterized by two low index layers inserted between the waveguide layers and the cladding layers. The additional layers were intended to achieve wide optical spread in the cladding layers and strong confinement in the active region. This enabled significant reduction of beam divergence with no sacrifice in threshold current density. The numerical results showed that lasers with extremely low vertical beam divergence from 20 degrees down to 11 degrees and threshold current density of less than 131 A/cm(2) can be easily achieved by optimization of the structure parameters. Influences of individual key structure parameters on beam divergence and threshold current density are analyzed. Attention is also paid to the minimum cladding layer thicknesses needed to maintain low threshold current densities and low internal loss. The near and far field patterns are given and discussed. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics.

Kinetics of dissociative water adsorption on stepped Si(001), on Si(115), Si(113), Si(5,5,12) and Si(112)

We present photoelectron spectroscopic and low energy electron diffraction measurements of water adsorption on flat Si samples of the orientations (001), (115), (113), (5,5,12) and (112) as well as on curved samples covering continuously the ranges (001)-(117) and (113)-(5,5,12)-(112). On all orientations, water adsorption is dissociative (OH and H) and non-destructive. On Si(001) the sticking coefficient S and the saturation coverage Theta(sat) are largest. On Si(001) and for small miscuts in the [110]-azimuth, S is constant nearly up to saturation which proves that the kinetics involves a weakly bound mobile precursor state. For (001)-vicinals with high miscut angles (9-13 degrees), the step structure breaks down, the precursor mobility is affected and the adsorption kinetics changed. On (115), (113), (5,5,12) and (112), the values of S and Theta(sat) are smaller which indicates that not all sites are able to dissociate and bind water. For (113) the shape of the adsorption curves Theta versus exposure shows the existence of two adsorption processes, one with mobile precursor kinetics and one with Langmuir-like kinetics. On (5,5,12), two processes with mobile precursor kinetics are observed which are ascribed to adsorption on different surface regions within the large surface unit cell. From the corresponding values of S and Theta(sat), data for structure models are deduced. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.

The enhancement of spontaneous emission factor in selectively oxidized vertical cavity lasers with double oxide layers

The behaviors of lateral propagating modes in the aperture and the oxidized regions are investigated numerically for selectively oxidized vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs). The results show that the lateral propagating modes in the oxidized region are greatly affected by the oxide layer due to its low index, the modes are divergence for the VCSELs with sufficient thick double oxide layers. So the coupling between the modes in the aperture and oxidized regions is very weak, and we can expect that the lateral spontaneous emission is greatly affected in this case. Ignoring the contribution of the lateral spontaneous emission, we calculate spontaneous emission factor by counting the total number of the guided modes in selectively oxidized VCSELs with double oxide layers. The results agree very well with the reported measurements and are inversely proportional to the lateral index step.

Design guidelines and characteristics of beam-shaping microstructure optical fibers

Microstructure optical fibers with flat-top fundamental mode are first proposed by introducing a low-index inner core into the core of index-guiding microstructure optical fibers. The design guidelines and characteristics of beam-shaping microstructure optical fibers are demonstrated. The interrelationships of inner-core index with laser wavelength, air hole diameter and size of inner core are investigated. The influence of the relative size of inner core on the spatial profile of the fundamental mode is demonstrated. Moreover, sensitivity of the flat-top fundamental mode profile from the slight change of the optimum inner-core index value is studied. Starting from these results we deduce that it is possible to fabricate beam-shaping microstructure fibers with nowadays technique. (C) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Optimization of thin-film design for multi-layer dielectric grating

Thin-film design used to fabricate multi-layer dielectric (MLD) gratings should provide high transmittance during holography exposure, high reflectance at use wavelength and sufficient manufacturing latitude of the grating design making the MLD grating achieve both high diffraction efficiency and low electric field enhancement. Based on a (HLL)H-9 design comprising of quarter-waves of high-index material and half-waves of low-index material, we obtain an optimum MLD coating meeting these requirements by inserting a matching layer being half a quarter-wave of Al2O3 between the initial design and an optimized HfO2 top layer. The optimized MLD coatings exhibits a low reflectance of 0.017% under photoresist at the exposure angle of 17.8 degrees for 413 nm light and a high reflectance of 99.61% under air at the use angle of 51.2 degrees for 1053 nm light. Numerical calculation of intensity distribution in the photoresist coated on the MLD film during exposure shows that standing-wave patterns are greatly minimized and thus simulation profile of photoresist gratings after development demonstrates smoother shapes with lower roughness. Furthermore, a MLD gratings with grooves etched into the top layer of this MLD coating provides a high diffraction efficiency of 99.5% and a low electric field enhancement ratio of 1.53. This thin-film design shows perfect performances and can be easily fabricated by e-beam evaporation. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Simulation demonstration and experimental fabrication of a multiple-slot waveguide

A multiple-slot waveguide is presented and demonstrated through theoretical simulation. Taking a double-slot waveguide as an example, the results show a nearly 30% enhancement of optical intensity compared with the traditional single-slot waveguide with the same slot gap width. Therefore, the E-field intensity of the slot can be increased by adding another smaller slot. A double-slot waveguide with oxide and air as low index slot materials is realized experimentally and the formation processes of the slots are analyzed.

The correlation between preferred orientation and performance of ITO thin films

The tin-doped indium oxide (ITO) thin films were prepared by reactive thermal evaporation on the glass substrates. The effects of substrate temperatures (T-s) on the grain preferred orientation, the electrical and optical properties of ITO films were studied. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns indicated that the preferred orientation of film changes from (222) to (400) as T, > 200 degrees C. It can be explained by that the low-index crystallographic planes are easier to be formed when the adatoms have high surface mobility. The Hall measurements indicated that both the concentration and mobility of carrier increase with increasing T,,,. The grain orientation of film does not influence the transmissivity and the carrier concentration, but enhances the carrier mobility. The transmissivity of ITO films is over 90% in the visible wavelength region (except that of the film deposited at 125 degrees C). A minimum resistivity of 5 X 10-4 Omega cm is achieved for the (400) preferred orientation film. Thus, the highest figure of merit of 3.5 x 10(-2) square/Omega is obtained for the film with (400) preferred orientation. The correlation between the preferred orientation and electrical and optical properties are discussed.

Effect of reflectivity at the interface of oxide layer on transverse mode control in oxide confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers

The transverse mode control in oxide confined vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers is discussed by modeling the dielectric aperture as a uniform waveguide and an extra reflectivity at the oxide layer. The phase of the extra reflectivity and the refractive index step can be adjusted to change the mode threshold gain. We calculate the lateral refractive index step from the mode wavelength difference between aperture and perimeter modes, and compare it with that obtained from the weighted average index. The mode reflectivity in terms of the lateral optical confinement factor at the oxide layer is considered in calculating the threshold gain for transverse modes. The numerical results show that higher transverse modes can be suppressed by adjusting the position of a thin AlAs-oxide layer inside a three-quarter-wave layer in the distributed Bragg reflector. (C) 1998 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)04007-9].

Delay of the excited state lasing of 1310 nm InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers by facet coating

In this letter, we present a facet coating design to delay the excited state (ES) lasing for 1310 nm InAs/GaAs quantum dot lasers. The key point of our design is to ensure that the mirror loss of ES is larger than that of the ground state by decreasing the reflectivity of the ES. In the facet coating design, the central wavelength is at 1480 nm, and the high- and low-index materials are Ta2O5 and SiO2, respectively. Compared with the traditional Si/SiO2 facet coating with a central wavelength of 1310 nm, we have found that with the optimal design the turning temperature of the ES lasing has been delayed from 90 to 100 degrees C for the laser diodes with cavity length of 1.2 mm. Furthermore, the characteristic temperature (T-0) of the laser diodes is also improved.

The mode control of asymmetric Fabry-Perot optical modulators with multiple quantum wells

The asymmetric Fabry-Perot (ASFP) mode position with the thickness of different index coating layer is calculated. The reason for the blue shift of the ASFP mode with the increasing thickness of low index coating layer is analyzed and this phenomenon is observed in experiments. With the wet-etching method, the ASFP mode can be tuned to the desired wavelength and thus the deviation of growth can be compensated. This method is used to improve the contrast ratio of modulators. With the ASFP mode located at different positions relative to the unbiased e-hh peak, different modulation characteristics are demonstrated.

Integrated MMI Optical Couplers and Optical Switches in Silicon-on-Insulator Technology

Integrated multimode interference (MMI) coupler based on silicon-on-insulator(SOI) has been becoming a kind of more and more attractive device in optical systems. SiO2thin cladding layers (＜1.0 μm) can be usedin SOI waveguide due to the large index step be-tween Si and SiO2, making them compatible with VLSI technology. The design and fabrica-tion of MMI optical couplers and optical switches in SOI technology are presented in thepa-per. We demonstrated the switching time of 2 × 2 MMI-MZI thermo-optical switch is less than 20 μs:

MMI optical couplers and switches with SOI technology

MMI (multimode interference) coupler, modulator and switch based on SOI (silicon- on-insulator) have been become more and more attractive in optical systems since they show important performances. SiO2 thin cladding layers (<1.0mum) can be used in SOI waveguide due to the large index step between Si and SiO2, making them compatible with the VLSI technology. The design and fabrication of multimode interference (MMI) optical coupler, modulator and switche in SOI technology are presented in the paper. The results demonstrated that the modulator has an extinction ratio of -11.0dB and excess loss of -2.5dB, while the optical switch has a crosstalk of -12.5dB and responding time of less than 20 mus.

Integrated MMI optical couplers and optical switches in Silicon-on-insulator technology

Integrated multimode interference coupler based on silicon-on-insulator has been become a kind of more and more attractive device in optical systems. Thin cladding layers (<1.0mum) can be used in SOI waveguide due to the large index step between Si and SiO2, making them compatible with the VLSI technology. Here we demonstrate the design and fabrication of multimode interference (MMI) optical couplers and optical switches in SOI technology.

Integrated multimode interference couplers in silicon-on insulator

Silicon-on insulator (SOI) is an attractive platform for the fabrication of optoelectronic integrated circuit. Thin cladding layers (< 1.0m) can be used in SOI waveguide due to the large index step between Si and SiO2, making them compatible with the VLSI technology. Here we demonstrate the fabrication of 1 x 4 and 2 x 2 multimode interference (MMI) coupler based on SOI technology. Performances of the devices are analyzed. The minimum excess loss of the devices is about 1.8dB. The devices show uniform power distribution.