Measurement of chirp parameter and modulation index of a semiconductor laser based on optical spectrum analysis

A novel and simple method for measuring the chirp parameter, frequency, and intensity modulation indexes of directly modulated lasers is proposed in a small-signal modulation scheme. A graphical approach is presented. An analytical solution to the measurement of low chirp parameters is also given. The measured results agree well with those obtained using the conventional methods.

A short carrier lifetime semiconductor optical amplifier with n-type modulation-doped multiple quantum well structure

Semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) with n-type modulation-doped multiple quantum well structure have been investigated. The shortened carrier lifetime is derived from the PL spectrum and electrical modulation frequency response measurement. The carrier lifetime in semiconductor optical amplifiers with any n-type-2-modulated doping multiple quantum well structure is less than 60% of that in the undoped partner. The shortest measured carrier lifetime of 236 ps in the MD-MQW SOA with sheet carrier density of 3 x 10(12) cm(-2) was only 38% of that in the undoped MQW SOA, which can increase the wavelength conversion efficiency via four wave mixing by a factor of about 7 and switching speed via XGM and XPM applications by a factor of 2.63.

Comparison of two kinds of active layers for high-power narrow-stripe distributed feedback laser diodes

Usually GaAs/AlGaAs is utilized as an active layer material in laser diodes operating in the spectral range of 800 850 nm. In this work, in addition to a traditional unstrained GaAs/AlGaAs distributed feedback (DFB) laser diode, a compressively strained InGaAlAs/AlGaAs DFB laser diode is numerically investigated in characteristic. The simulation results show that the compressively strained DFB laser diode has a lower transparency carrier density, higher gain, lower Auger recombination rate, and higher stimulated recombination rate, which lead to better a device performance, than the traditional unstrained GaAs/AlGaAs DFB laser diode.

Rate-equation-based circuit model of high-speed semiconductor lasers

Based oil rare equations of semiconductor laser, a symbolically-defined model for optical transmission system performance evaluation and network characterization in both time- and frequency domains is presented. The steady-state and small-signal characteristics, such as current-photon density curve, current-voltage curve, and input impedance, call be predicted from this model. Two important dynamic characteristics, second-order harmonic distortion and two-tone third-order intermodulation products, are evaluated under different driving conditions. Experiments show that the simulated results agree well with the published data. (c) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Tunable giant Faraday rotation of exciton in semiconductor quantum wells embedded in a microcavity

The Faraday rotation of an exciton in a GaAs quantum well (QW) embedded in a microcavity is investigated theoretically. The authors find that the Faraday rotation is enhanced remarkably by the microcavity, with a magnitude about two orders of magnitude larger than that of a single QW without microcavity. The Faraday rotation can be tuned by changing the incident angle of the pump and probe lights, or by varying the temperature or an external electric field. With an appropriate detuning between the cavity mode of the pump and probe lights, the Faraday rotation spectrum displays a strongly asymmetric line shape, which can easily be detected experimentally.

Fabrication of photonic crystal on semiconductor materials by using focued ion-beam

A method of manufacturing two-dimensional photonic crystals on several kinds of semiconductor materials in near infrared region by a focused ion beam is introduced, and the corresponding fabrication results are presented and show that the obtained parameters of fabricated photonic crystals are identical with the designed ones. Using the tunable laser source, the spectra of the fabricated passive photonic crystal and the active photonic crystal are measured. The experiment demonstrates that the focused ion-beam can be used to fabricate the perfect two-dimensional photonic crystals and their devices.

Fabrication of InGaAlAs MQW buried heterostructure lasers by narrow stripe selective MOVPE

Fabrication of InGaAlAs MQW buried heterostructure (BH) lasers by narrow stripe selective MOVPE is demonstrated in this paper. High quality InGaAlAs MQWs were first grown by narrow stripe selective MOVPE without any etching process and assessed by analysing the cross sections and PL spectrums of the InGaAlAs MQWs. Furthermore, BHs were fabricated for the InGaAlAs MQW lasers by a developed unselective regrowth method, instead of conventional selective regrowth. The InGaAlAs MQW BH lasers exhibit good device characteristics, with a high internal differential quantum efficiency of 85% and a low internal loss of 6.7 cm(-1). Meanwhile, narrow divergence angles of the far field pattern are obtained for the fabricated lasers.

Broad-band semiconductor optical amplifiers

Broad-band semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) with different thicknesses and thin bulk tensile-strained active layers were fabricated and studied. Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) spectra and gain spectra of SOAs were measured and analyzed at different CW biases. A maximal 3 dB ASE bandwidth of 136 nm ranging from 1480 to 1616 nm, and a 3 dB optical amplifier gain bandwidth of about 90 nm ranging from 1510 to 1600 nm, were obtained for the very thin bulk active SOA. Other SOAs characteristics such as saturation output power and polarization sensitivity were measured and compared. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Electronic noise of diluted magnetic semiconductor (Ga,Mn)As around Curie point

National Natural Science Foundation of China 10674129

Semiconductor-metal transition in InSb nanowires and nanofilms under external electric field

The electronic structures, Rashba spin-orbit couplings, and transport properties of InSb nanowires and nanofilms are investigated theoretically. When both the radius of the wire (or the thickness of the film) and the electric field are large, the electron bands and hole bands overlap, and the Fermi level crosses with some bands, which means that the semiconductors transit into metals. Meanwhile, the Rashba coefficients behave in an abnormal way. The conductivities increase dramatically when the electric field is larger than a critical value. This semiconductor-metal transition is observable at the room temperature. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Passively mode-locked Nd : YVO4 laser using semiconductor saturable absorption mirrors of interface states relaxation region

Semiconductor saturable absorber mirrors (SESAMs) with GaAs/air interface relaxation region have less nonsaturable loss than those with low temperature grown In0.25Ga0.75As relaxation region. A thin layer Of SiO2 and a high reflectivity film Of Si/(SiO2/Si)(4) were coated on the SESAMs, respectively in order to improve the SESAM's threshold for damage. The passively continuous wave mode-locked lasers with two such SESAMs were demonstrated, and the SESAM with high reflectivity film of Si/(SiO2/Si)(4) is proved to be helpful for high output power. (c) 2006 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.

High-repetition rate Q-switched Nd : YVO4 laser with a composite semiconductor absorber

A diode-pumped Nd:YVO4 laser passively Q switched by a semiconductor absorber is demonstrated. The Q-switched operation of the laser has an average output power of 135 mW with a 1.6 W incident pump power. The minimum pulse width is measured to be about 8.3 ns with a repetition rate of 2 MHz. To our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of a solid-state laser passively Q-switched by such a composite semiconductor absorber. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.

Study on in-plane optical anisotropy of semiconductor materials by reflectance difference spectroscopy

In the present review, the measuring principle of reflectance difference spectroscopy (RDS) is given. As a powerful tool in the surface and interface analysis technologies, the application of RDS to the research on semiconductor materials is summarized. along with the origins of the in-plane optical anisotropy of semiconductors. And it is believed that RDS will play an important role in the electrooptic modification of Si-based semiconductor materials.

Influence of longitudinal electric field on the hot-phonon effect in quantum wells

Using the Huang-Zhu model [K. Huang and B.-F. Zhu, Phys. Rev. B 38, 13377 (1988)] for the optical phonons and associated carrier-phonon interactions in semiconductor superlattices, the effects of longitudinal electric field on the energy-loss rates (ELRs) of hot carriers as well as on the hot-phonon effect (HPE) in GaAs/AlAs quantum wells (QWs) are studied systematically. Contributions of various bulklike and interface phonons to the hot-carrier relaxation are compared in detail, and comprehensively analyzed in relation to the intrasubband and intersubband scatterings for quantum cascade lasers. Due to the broken parity of the electron (hole) states in the electric field, the bulklike modes with antisymmetric potentials are allowed in the intrasubband relaxation processes, as well as the modes with symmetric potentials. As the interface phonon scattering is strong only in narrow wells, in which the electric field affects the electron (hole) states little, the ELRs of hot carriers through the interface phonon scattering are not sensitive to the electric field. The HPE on the hot-carrier relaxation process in the medium and wide wells is reduced by the electric field. The influence of the electric field on the hot-phonon effect in quantum cascade lasers is negligible. When the HPE is ignored, the ELRs of hot electrons in wide QWs are decreased noticeably by the electric field, but slightly increased by the field when considering the HPE. In contrast with the electrons, the ELRs of hot holes in wide wells are increased by the field, irrespective of the HPE. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

MQW electroabsorption modulator-integrated DFB laser modules for high-speed transmission

Details of the design, fabrication and testing of a strained InGaAsP/InGaAsP multiple quantum well (MQW) electroabsorption modulator (EAM) monolithically integrated with a DFB laser by ultra-low-pressure selective area growth (SAG) are presented. The method greatly simplifies the integration process. A study of the controllability of band-gap energy by SAG has been performed. After being completely packaged in a seven-pin butterfly compact module, the device successfully performs 10 Gb s(-1) nonreturn to zero (NRZ) operation on uncompensated transmission span >53 km in a standard fibre with a 8.7 dB dynamic extinction ratio. A receiver sensitivity of -18.9 dBm at a bit error rate (BER) of 10(-10) is confirmed. 10 GHz short pulse trains with 15.3 ps pulsewidth have also been generated.