Fabrication and characterization of TO packaged high-speed laser modules - art. no. 682407

Various high-speed laser modules are fabricated by TO-Packaged processes, such as FP laser modules, DFB laser modules, and VCSEL modules. Furthermore,, the resonance among the circuit elements provides an approach to compensating the TO packaging parasitics, and improving the frequency response of the devices. The detailed equivalent circuit model is established to investigate both the laser diode and packaging comprehensively. The small-signal modulation bandwidths of the TO packaged FP laser, DFB laser and the VCSEL modules are more than 10, 9.7 and 8 GHz, respectively.

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.

Phase-locked ring-defect photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser

Phase-locked oxide-confined ring-defect photonic crystal vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser is presented. The coupled-mode theory is employed to illustrate the two supermodes of the device, in-phase and out-of-phase supermode. Experimental results verify the two supermodes by the characteristics of the spectra and the far field patterns. At the lower current, only the out-of-phase supermode is excited, whereas under the higher current, the in-phase supermode also appears at the shorter wavelength range. In addition, the measured spectral separation between the two supermodes agrees well with the theoretical result.

An automatic step adjustment method for average power analysis technique used in fiber amplifiers

An automatic step adjustment (ASA) method for average power analysis (APA) technique used in fiber amplifiers is proposed in this paper for the first time. In comparison with the traditional APA technique, the proposed method has suggested two unique merits such as a higher order accuracy and an ASA mechanism, so that it can significantly shorten the computing time and improve the solution accuracy. A test example demonstrates that, by comparing to the APA technique, the proposed method increases the computing speed by more than a hundredfold under the same errors. By computing the model equations of erbium-doped fiber amplifiers, the numerical results show that our method can improve the solution accuracy by over two orders of magnitude at the same amplifying section number. The proposed method has the capacity to rapidly and effectively compute the model equations of fiber Raman amplifiers and semiconductor lasers. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America

A COMMON-CAVITY 2-SECTION INGAASP/INP BISTABLE LASER WITH A LOW OPTICAL SWITCHING POWER

The characteristics of the steady-state and the transient response to external light excitation of a common-cavity two-section (CCTS) bistable semiconductor laser is investigated. The results on the relation of light output versus light input, the wavelength match, optical amplification and optical switching are presented. Experimental results are compared to the results of a computer simulation.

Optical characterization of InAs monolayer quantum structures grown on (311)A, (311)B, and (100)GaAs substrates

Low-temperature photoluminescence and excitation spectra from InAs monolayer quantum structures, grown on (311)A, (311)B, and (100) GaAs substrates, are investigated, The structures were grown simultaneously by conventional molecular-beam epitaxy (MBE), The experimental results show that the quality of InAs monolayer on (311)B GaAs substrate is obviously better in crystal quality than those on the two other oriented GaAs substrates. In addition, the transition peaks of the InAs layer grown on (311) GaAs substrates shift to higher energy with respect to that from the InAs layer grown on (100) GaAs substrate.

Valence hole subbands and optical gain spectra of GaN/Ga1-xAlxN strained quantum wells

The valence hole subbands, TE and TM mode optical gains, transparency carrier density, and radiative current density of the zinc-blende GaN/Ga0.85Al0.15N strained quantum well (100 Angstrom well width) have been investigated using a 6 X 6 Hamiltonian model including the heavy hole, Light hole, and spin-orbit split-off bands. At the k = 0 point, it is found that the light hole strongly couples with the spin-orbit split-off hole, resulting in the so+lh hybrid states. The heavy hole does not couple with the light hole and the spin-orbit split-off hole. Optical transitions between the valence subbands and the conduction subbands obey the Delta n=0 selection rule. At the k not equal 0 points, there is strong band mixing among the heavy hole, light hole, and spin-orbit split-off hole. The optical transitions do not obey the Delta n=0 selection rule. The compressive strain in the GaN well region increases the energy separation between the so1+lh1 energy level and the hh1 energy level. Consequently, the compressive strain enhances the TE mode optical gain, and strongly depresses the TM mode optical gain. Even when the carrier density is as large as 10(19) cm(-3), there is no positive TM mode optical gain. The TE mode optical gain spectrum has a peak at around 3.26 eV. The transparency carrier density is 6.5 X 10(18) cm(-3), which is larger than that of GaAs quantum well. The compressive strain overall reduces the transparency carrier density. The J(rad) is 0.53 kA/cm(2) for the zero optical gain. The results obtained in this work will be useful in designing quantum well GaN laser diodes and detectors. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.

High performance 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP strained layer quantum well laser diodes fabricated by MOCVD overgrowth method

High performance uncooled 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP strained layer quantum well (SL-QW) lasers grown by low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) were reported in this paper. Whole MOCVD over growth method were applied in this work. The threshold currents of 5mA and the highest lasing temperature of 122 degrees C were obtained.

1.3 mu m InGaAsP/InP strained layer multi-quantum-well complex-coupled distributed feedback laser

1.3 mu m strained-layer multi-quantum wells complex-coupled distributed feedback lasers with a wide temperature range of 20 to 100 degrees C are reported. The low threshold current of 10mA and high single-facet slope efficiency of 0.3mW/mA were obtained for an as cleaved device. The single mode yield was as high as 80%.

Visible vertical cavity surface emitting laser

We have designed and fabricated the visible vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's) by using metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). We use the 8 lambda optical cavities with 3 quantum wells in AlGaInP/AlGaAs red VCSEL's to reduce the drift leakage current and enhance the model gain in AlGaInP active region. The structure has a p-type stack with 36 DBR pairs on the top and an n-type with 55-1/2 pairs on the bottom. Using micro-area reflectance spectrum, we try to get a better concordance between the center wavelength of DBR and the emitting wavelength of the active region. We used a component graded layer of 0.05 lambda thick (x = 0.5 similar to 0.9) at the p-type DBR AlGaAs/AlAs interface to reduce the resistance of p-type DBR. We use selective oxidation to define the current injection path. Because the oxidation rate of a thick layer is faster than a thinner one, we grown a thick AlAs layer close to the active region. In this way, we got a smaller active region for efficient confinement of injected carriers (the aperture area is 3 x 3 mu m) to reduce the threshold and, at the same time, a bigger conductive area in the DBR layers to reduce the resistance. We employ Zn doping on the p-side of the junction to improve hole injection and control the Zn dopant diffusion to get proper p-i-n junction. At room temperature, pulse operation of the laser has been achieved with the low threshold current of 0.8mA; the wavelength is about 670nm.

The study of single mode 650nm AlGaInP quantum well laser diodes for DVD

Single mode 650nm AlGaInP quantum well laser diodes grown by low pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) was reported in this paper. Selected buried rigewaveguid were applied for single mode operation especially for DVD use. The operating temperature over 90 degree at CW output power 5 mW was achieved.

InP-based optoelectronic devices for optical fiber communications

In this contribution we report the research and development of 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP gain-coupled DFB laser with an improved injection-carrier induced grating and of high performance 1.3 mu m and 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP FP and DFB lasers for communications. Long wavelength strained MQW laser diodes with a very low threshold current (7-10 mA) have been fabricated. Low pressure MOVPE technology has been employed for the preparation of the layered structure. A novel gain-coupled DFB laser structure with an improved injection-carrier modulated grating has been proposed and fabricated. The laser structures have been prepared by hybrid growth of MOVPE and LPE techniques and reasonably good characteristics have been achieved for resultant lasers. High performance 1.3 mu m and 1.55 mu m InGaAsP/InP DFB lasers have successfully been developed for CATV and trunk line optical fiber communication.

All-Optical Clock Recovery for 20 Gb/s Using an Amplified Feedback DFB Laser

We report all optical clock recovery based on a monolithic integrated four-section amplified feedback semiconductor laser (AFL), with the different sections integrated based on the quantum well intermixing (QWI) technique. The beat frequency of an AFL is continuously tunable in the range of 19.8-26.3 GHz with an extinction ratio above 8 dB, and the 3-dB linewidth is close to 3 MHz. All-optical clock recovery for 20 Gb/s was demonstrated experimentally using the AFL, with a time jitter of 123.9 fs. Degraded signal clock recovery was also successfully demonstrated using both the dispersion and polarization mode dispersion (PMD) degraded signals separately.

Photonic integrated circuit for the manipulation of coherent optical combs

Photonic integration has become an important research topic in research for applications in the telecommunications industry. Current optical internet infrastructure has reached capacity with current generation dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems fully occupying the low absorption region of optical fibre from 1530 nm to 1625 nm (the C and L bands). This is both due to an increase in the number of users worldwide and existing users demanding more bandwidth. Therefore, current research is focussed on using the available telecommunication spectrum more efficiently. To this end, coherent communication systems are being developed. Advanced coherent modulation schemes can be quite complex in terms of the number and array of devices required for implementation. In order to make these systems viable both logistically and commercially, photonic integration is required. In traditional DWDM systems, arrayed waveguide gratings (AWG) are used to both multiplex and demultiplex the multi-wavelength signal involved. AWGs are used widely as they allow filtering of the many DWDM wavelengths simultaneously. However, when moving to coherent telecommunication systems such as coherent optical frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) smaller FSR ranges are required from the AWG. This increases the size of the device which is counter to the miniaturisation which integration is trying to achieve. Much work was done with active filters during the 1980s. This involved using a laser device (usually below threshold) to allow selective wavelength filtering of input signals. By using more complicated cavity geometry devices such as distributed feedback (DFB) and sampled grating distributed Bragg gratings (SG-DBR) narrowband filtering is achievable with high suppression (>30 dB) of spurious wavelengths. The active nature of the devices also means that, through carrier injection, the index can be altered resulting in tunability of the filter. Used above threshold, active filters become useful in filtering coherent combs. Through injection locking, the coherence of the filtered wavelengths with the original comb source is retained. This gives active filters potential application in coherent communication system as demultiplexers. This work will focus on the use of slotted Fabry-Pérot (SFP) semiconductor lasers as active filters. Experiments were carried out to ensure that SFP lasers were useful as tunable active filters. In all experiments in this work the SFP lasers were operated above threshold and so injection locking was the mechanic by which the filters operated. Performance of the lasers under injection locking was examined using both single wavelength and coherent comb injection. In another experiment two discrete SFP lasers were used simultaneously to demultiplex a two-line coherent comb. The relative coherence of the comb lines was retained after demultiplexing. After showing that SFP lasers could be used to successfully demultiplex coherent combs a photonic integrated circuit was designed and fabricated. This involved monolithic integration of a MMI power splitter with an array of single facet SFP lasers. This device was tested much in the same way as the discrete devices. The integrated device was used to successfully demultiplex a two line coherent comb signal whilst retaining the relative coherence between the filtered comb lines. A series of modelling systems were then employed in order to understand the resonance characteristics of the fabricated devices, and to understand their performance under injection locking. Using this information, alterations to the SFP laser designs were made which were theoretically shown to provide improved performance and suitability for use in filtering coherent comb signals.

Theory of the electronic and optical properties of dilute bismide alloys

Dilute bismide alloys, containing small fractions of bismuth (Bi), have recently attracted interest due to their potential for applications in a range of semiconductor devices. Experiments have revealed that dilute bismide alloys such as GaBixAs1−x, in which a small fraction x of the atoms in the III-V semiconductor GaAs are replaced by Bi, exhibit a number of unusual and unique properties. For example, the band gap energy (E g) decreases rapidly with increasing Bi composition x, by up to 90 meV per % Bi replacing As in the alloy. This band gap reduction is accompanied by a strong increase in the spin-orbit-splitting energy (ΔSO) with increasing x, and both E g and ΔSO are characterised by strong, composition-dependent bowing. The existence of a ΔSO > E g regime in the GaBixAs1−x alloy has been demonstrated for x ≳10%, a band structure condition which is promising for the development of highly efficient, temperature stable semiconductor lasers that could lead to large energy savings in future optical communication networks. In addition to their potential for specific applications, dilute bismide alloys have also attracted interest from a fundamental perspective due to their unique properties. In this thesis we develop the theory of the electronic and optical properties of dilute bismide alloys. By adopting a multi-scale approach encompassing atomistic calculations of the electronic structure using the semi-empirical tight-binding method, as well as continuum calculations based on the k•p method, we develop a fundamental understanding of this unusual class of semiconductor alloys and identify general material properties which are promising for applications in semiconductor optoelectronic and photovoltaic devices. By performing detailed supercell calculations on both ordered and disordered alloys we explicitly demonstrate that Bi atoms act as isovalent impurities when incorporated in dilute quantities in III-V (In)GaAs(P) materials, strongly perturbing the electronic structure of the valence band. We identify and quantify the causes and consequences of the unusual electronic properties of GaBixAs1−x and related alloys, and our analysis is reinforced throughout by a series of detailed comparisons to the results of experimental measurements. Our k•p models of the band structure of GaBixAs1−x and related alloys, which we derive directly from detailed atomistic calculations, are ideally suited to the study of dilute bismide-based devices. We focus in the latter part of the thesis on calculations of the electronic and optical properties of dilute bismide quantum well lasers. In addition to developing an understanding of the effects of Bi incorporation on the operational characteristics of semiconductor lasers, we also present calculations which have been used explicitly in designing and optimising the first generation of GaBixAs1−x-based devices.