NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF A NOVEL 980nm MICROCAVITY SEMICONDUCTOR OPTICAL AMPLIFIER WITH HIGH GAIN AND LOW NOISE

A novel microcavity semiconductor optical amplifier ( MCSOA) was proposed by incorporating top and bottom distributed Bragg reflectors ( DBRs) into the waveguide structure of conventional traveling-wave semiconductor optical amplifiers(TW-SOAs). The incoming( outgoing) light beam incidented onto (escaped from) the waveguide structure at a oblique angle through two optical windows, where the top DBR was etched away, and anti-reflection coating was deposited. The light beams inside the optical cavity were reflected repeatedly between two DBRs and propagated along waveguide in a zigzag optical path. The performance of the MCSOA was systematically investigated by extensive numerical simulation based on a traveling-wave model by taking into account the comprehensive effects of DBRs on both the amplification of signals and the filtering of spontaneous emission( SE). Our results show that the MCSOA is capable of achieving a fiber-to-fiber gain as high as 40dB and a low noise figure is less than 3.5dB.

Photoluminescence properties of tensile-strained GaAsP/GaInP single quantum wells grown by metal organic chemical vapor deposition

Tensile-strained GaAsP/GaInP single quantum well (QW) laser diode (I-D) structures have been grown by low-pressure metal organic chemical vapor deposition (LP-MOCVD) and related photoluminescence (PL) properties have been investigated in detail. The samples have the same well thickness of 16 nm but different P compositions in a GaAsP QW. Two peaks in room temperature (RT) PL spectra are observed for samples with a composition larger than 0.10. Temperature and excitation-power-dependent PL spectra have been measured for a sample with it P composition of 0.15. It is found that the two peaks have a 35 meV energy separation independent of temperature and only the low-energy peak exists below 85 K. Additionally, both peak intensities exhibit a monotonous increase as excitation power increases. Analyses indicate that the two peaks arise from the intrinsic-exciton recombination mechanisms of electron-heavy hole (e-hh) and electron-light hole (e-hh). A theoretical calculation based oil model-solid theory, taking, into account the spin-orbit splitting energy, shows good agreement with our experimental results. The temperature dependence of PL intensity ratio is well explained using the spontaneous emission theory for e-hh and e-hh transitions. front which the ratio can be characterized mainly by the energy separation between the fill and Ill states.

Effects of external magnetic field on the effective g factor of (Ga,Mn)As

With the help of time resolved magneto-optic Kerr rotation measurements, the optically induced spin precession in heavily doped diluted magnetic semiconductor Ga0.937Mn0.063 As was observed. It was found that the effective g factor increases with increasing magnetic field, which is attributed to the magnetic-field-induced increase of the density of the non-localized holes. Those free holes will couple with the localized magnetic ions by p-d interactions, leading to the formation of spontaneous magnetization in Ga0.937Mn0.063As, which in turn to the enhancement of the effective g factor.

Numerical analysis of gain saturation, noise figure, and carrier distribution for quantum-dot semiconductor-optical amplifiers

The gain saturation behaviors and noise figure are numerically analyzed for quantum-dot semiconductor optical amplifiers (QD-SOAs). The carrier and photon distributions in the longitudinal direction as well as the photon energy dependent facet reflectivity are accounted in the rate equations, which are solved with output amplified spontaneous emission spectrum as iterative variables. The longitudinal distributions of the occupation probabilities and spectral-hole burning are presented for electrons in the excited and ground states of quantum dots. The saturation output power 19.7 dBm and device gain 20.6 dB are obtained for a QD-SOA with the cavity length of 6 rum at the bias current of 500 mA. The influences of them electron intradot relaxation time and the QD capture time on the gain spectrum are simulated with the relaxation time of 1, 30, and 60 ps and capture time of 1, 5, and 10 ps. The noise figure as low as 3.5 dB is expected due to the strong polarization sensitive spontaneous emission. The characteristics of gain saturation and noise figure versus input signal power for QD-SOAs are similar to that of semiconductor. linear optical amplifiers with gain clamping by vertical laser fields.

Surface recombination in GaAs thin films with two-dimensional photonic crystals

The dynamics of spontaneous emission from GaAs slabs with photonic crystals etched into them are investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is found that the intensity of spontaneous emission decreases significantly and that photonic crystals significantly shorten the lifetime of emission. The mechanics of enhancement and the reduction of emission from photonic crystals are analyzed by considering the surface recombination of GaAs. The measured and calculated lifetimes agree at a surface recombination velocity of 1.88x10(5) cm/s.

Elasticity, band-gap bowing, and polarization of AlxGa1-xN alloys

Elastic constants, the bulk modulus, Young's modulus, band-gap bowing coefficients, spontaneous and piezoelectric polarizations, and piezoelectric coefficients of hexagonal AlxGa1-xN ternary alloys are calculated using first-principles methods. The fully relaxed structures and the structures subjected to homogeneous biaxial and uniaxial tension are investigated. We show that the biaxial tension in the plane perpendicular to the c axis and the uniaxial tension along the c axis all reduce the bulk modulus, whereas they reduce and enhance Young's modulus, respectively. We find that the biaxial and uniaxial tension can enhance the bowing coefficients. We also find that the biaxial tension can enhance the total polarization, while the uniaxial tension will suppress the total polarization. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.

Monolithically integrated transceiver with novel Y-branch by bundle integrated waveguide for fibre optic gyroscope

A novel Y-branch based monolithic transceiver with a superluminescent diode and a waveguide photodiode (Y-SDL-PD) is designed and fabricated by the method of bundle integrated waveguide (BIG) as the scheme for monolithic integration and angled Y-branch as the passive bi-directional waveguide. The simulations of BIG and Y-branches show low losses and improved far-field patterns, based on the beam propagation method (BPM). The amplified spontaneous emission of the device is up to 10mW at 120mA with no threshold and saturation. Spectral characteristics of about 30 nm width and less than 1 dB modulation are achieved using the built-in anti-lasing ability of Y-branch. The beam divergence angles in horizontal and vertical directions are optimized to as small as 12 degrees x 8 degrees, resulting in good fibre coupling.

Anisotropy of magnetic properties in ferrimagnetic ytterbium iron garnet under high magnetic fields

The magnetic anisotropy in ytterbium iron garnet (YbIG) is theoretically investigated under high magnetic fields (up to 160 kOe). According to the crystal field effect in ytterbium gallium garnet (YbGaG), a detailed discussion of crystal-field interaction in YbIG is presented where a suitable set of crystal-field parameters is obtained. Meanwhile, the influences of nine crystal-field parameters on the crystal-field energy splitting are analyzed. On the other hand, considering the ytterbium-iron (Yb-Fe) superexchange interaction of YbIG, the spontaneous magnetization is calculated at different temperatures for the [111] direction. In particular, we demonstrate that the Wesis constant lambda is the function of 1/T in YbIG. In addition, the field dependences of the magnetization for the [110] and [111] directions are theoretically described where a noticeable anisotropy can be found. Our theory further confirms the great contribution of anisotropic Yb-Fe superexchange interaction to the anisotropy of the magnetization in YbIG. Moreover, our theoretical results are compared with the available experiments.

The bipolar doping of ZnS via native defects and external dopants

By employing first-principle total-energy calculations, a systematic study of the dopability of ZnS to be both n- and p-types compared with that of ZnO is carried out. We find that all the attempted acceptor dopants, group V substituting on the S lattice site and group I and IB on the Zn sites in ZnS, have lower ionization energies than the corresponding ones in ZnO. This can be accounted for by the fact that ZnS has relative higher valence band maximum than ZnO. Native ZnS is weak p-type under S-rich condition, as the abundant acceptor V-Zn has rather large ionization energy. Self-compensations by the formation of interstitial donors in group I and IB-doped p-type ZnS can be avoided when sample is prepared under S-rich condition. In terms of ionization energies, Li-Zn and N-S are the preferred acceptors in ZnS. Native n- type doping of ZnS is limited by the spontaneous formation of intrinsic V-Zn(2-); high efficient n-type doping with dopants is harder to achieve than in ZnO because of the readiness of forming native compensating centers and higher ionization energy of donors in ZnS. (C) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI 10.1063/1.3103585]

Measurement of polar C-plane and nonpolar A-plane InN/ZnO heterojunctions band offsets by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The valence band offsets of the wurtzite polar C-plane and nonpolar A-plane InN/ZnO heterojunctions are directly determined by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to be 1.76 +/- 0.2 eV and 2.20 +/- 0.2 eV. The heterojunctions form in the type-I straddling configuration with a conduction band offsets of 0.84 +/- 0.2 eV and 0.40 +/- 0.2 eV. The difference of valence band offsets of them mainly attributes to the spontaneous polarization effect. Our results show important face dependence for InN/ZnO heterojunctions, and the valence band offset of A-plane heterojunction is more close to the "intrinsic" valence band offset.

Decay lifetime and evolution of semiconductor quantum dots in photonic crystals

Spontaneous emission from GaAs/AlGaAs quantum dots (QDs) embedded in photonic crystals with a narrow photonic band gap is studied theoretically. The results show that the decay lifetime is very sensitive to the sizes of QDs, and both inhibited and accelerated emission can occur, which had been indicated in a previous experiment. The Weisskopf-Wigner approximation, good for atoms and molecules, may be incorrect for QDs. A damped Rabi oscillation of the excited state with the transition frequency outside the photonic band gap may appear, which is impossible for atoms and molecules. (c) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Single-photon source in strong photon-atom interaction regime in quasiperiodic photonic crystals

The antibunching properties of the fluorescence from a two-level ideal system in a 12-fold quasiperiodic photonic crystal are investigated based on the calculated local density of states. We found that the antibunching phenomenon of the fluorescence from two-level ideal systems could be significantly changed by varying their positions, i.e., perfect antibunching and antibunching with damped Rabi oscillation phenomenon occurred in different positions and at different frequencies in photonic crystals as a result of the large differences in the local density of states. This study revealed that the multi-level coherence of fluorescence from a two-level ideal system could be manipulated by controlling the position of the two-level ideal system in photonic crystals and the emission frequency in the photonic band structure. Copyright (C) EPLA, 2008

The electronic structure of strained ZnO/MgxZn1-xO superlattices and the influence of polarization

Based on the effective-mass model, the lower energies of the electron and the hole of ZnO/MgxZn1-xO superlattices are calculated. Because of the mismatch of the lattice constant between the ZnO well and the MgxZn1-xO barrier, piezoelectric and spontaneous polarization exist in ZnO/MgxZn1-xO superlattices and a macroscopical internal electric held is found when well width L-w >4 nm and Mg concentration x > 0.2. The parameters of ZnO/MgxZn1-xO superlattices such as lattice constant, band offset, etc. are also proposed. Through calculations, we found the internal electric field can change the lowest energies of the electron and hole to 105.4 and 85.1 meV when well width L-w up to 70 angstrom, which will influence the electronic and optical properties of ZnO/MgxZn1-xO superlattices greatly, while the Rashba effect from the internal electric field is so small that it can be neglected. The ground state exciton energies with different Mg concentration x are also calculated by variational method, our results are very close to the experimental results when Mg concentration x <= 0.3. (C) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Origin and Enhancement of Hole-Induced Ferromagnetism in First-Row d(0) Semiconductors

The origin of ferromagnetism in d(0) semiconductors is studied using first-principles methods with ZnO as a prototype material. We show that the presence of spontaneous magnetization in nitrides and oxides with sufficient holes is an intrinsic property of these first-row d(0) semiconductors and can be attributed to the localized nature of the 2p states of O and N. We find that acceptor doping, especially doping at the anion site, can enhance the ferromagnetism with much smaller threshold hole concentrations. The quantum confinement effect also reduces the critical hole concentration to induce ferromagnetism in ZnO nanowires. The characteristic nonmonotonic spin couplings in these systems are explained in terms of the band coupling model.

Effects of polarization field on formation of two-dimensional electron gas in (0001) and (11(2)over-bar0) plane AlGaN/GaN heterostructures

Photoluminescence (PL) and temperature-dependent Hall effect measurements were carried out in (0001) and (11 (2) over bar0) AlGaN/GaN heterostructures grown on sapphire substrates by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition. There are strong spontaneous and piezoelectric electric fields (SPF) along the growth orientation of the (0001) AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. At the same time there are no corresponding SPF along that of the (1120) AlGaN/GaN. A strong PL peak related to the recombination between two-dimensional electron gas (2DEG) and photoexcited holes was observed at 3.258 eV at room temperature in (0001) AlGaN/GaN heterointerfaces while no corresponding PL peak was observed in (11 (2) over bar0). The existence of a 2DEG was observed in (0001) AlGaN/GaN multi-layers with a mobility saturated at 6000 cm(2)/V s below 80 K, whereas a much lower mobility was measured in (11 (2) over bar0). These results indicated that the SPF was the main element to cause the high mobility and high sheet-electron-density 2DEG in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.