Fabrication and characterization of an InGaAsP/InP active waveguide optical isolator with 14.7 dB/mm TE mode nonreciprocal attenuation

The authors have fabricated transverse electric (TE) mode InGaAsP/InP active waveguide optical isolators based on the nonreciprocal loss shift and demonstrated improved TE mode isolation ratio of 14.7 dB/mm with reduced insertion loss at a wavelength of 1550 nm for monolithically integrable optical isolators. The wavelength dependence of the isolation ratio and the propagation loss were also measured. An isolation ratio greater than 10 dB/mm was realized over the entire wavelength range of 1530-1560 nm. These results lead to the monolithic integration of semiconductor waveguide optical isolators with edge-emitting semiconductor lasers and highly functional photonic integrated circuits with many cascaded optical devices.