Simulation of an AlGaInAs/InP Electro-Absorption Modulator Monolithically Integrated with Sidewall Grating Distributed Feedback Laser by Quantum Well Intermixing

• DOI: 10.3390/photonics9080564
• Publication Date: 2022-08-11T09:43:57Z
• Authors: Xiao Sun; Weiqing Cheng; Yiming Sun; Shengwei Ye; Ali Al-Moathin; Yongguang Huang; Ruikang Zhang; Song Liang; Bocang Qiu; Jichuan Xiong; Xuefeng Liu; John H. Marsh; Lianping Hou
• Keywords: quantum well intermixing (QWI); multi-quantum well (MQW); AlGaInAs; 0211 other engineering and technologies; Applied optics. Photonics; 02 engineering and technology; 7. Clean energy; sidewall grating; TA1501-1820

A novel AlGaInAs/InP electro-absorption modulated laser (EML) with a simple fabrication process is proposed, in which the electro-absorption modulator (EAM) has a 10 nm blueshift induced by quantum well intermixing (QWI) and is monolithically integrated with a sidewall grating distributed-feedback (DFB) laser working at 1.55 μm wavelength. The extent of the QWI process is characterized by a diffusion length. The quantum confined Stark effect (QCSE) is simulated in terms of extinction ratio (ER) and chirp for bias electric fields from 0 kV/cm to 200 kV/cm and for different amounts of intermixing. The results indicate that for a 150 µm-long EAM with a 10 nm blueshift induced by QWI, an ER of 40 dB is obtained at 2.5 V reverse bias with no penalty in chirp compared to an as-grown quantum well (QW) and the insertion loss at 0 V bias is 0.11 dB for 1.55 µm operation wavelength. The simulated –3 dB bandwidth of the electrical to optical power response is 22 GHz.