Propagation characteristics of GaAs/AlGaAs QW ridge waveguides

A method is presented to accurately determine geometric effects in quantum well (QW) devices. Finite element methods have been used in combination with perturbation techniques to determine the propagation characteristics of a single QW GaAs/AlGaAs ridge waveguide. The attenuation coefficient and phase shift are evaluated for both transverse-electric (TE) and transverse-magnetic (TM) polarizations. The results show that a simple slab model overestimates the attenuation and phase change for wavelengths smaller than the excitonic resonances of the QW and underestimates them for larger wavelengths.<
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