The applications of an interdiffused quantum well in a normally on electroabsorptive Fabry-Perot reflection modulator

A Fabry-Perot reflection-type modulator which uses interdiffused AlGaAs-GaAs quantum wells as the active cavity material has been studied and optimized theoretically. An asymmetric Bragg reflector structure (modeled by transfer matrices), with a doped depletion layer in the heterostructure, has been considered. This is the first study to model such a material system in this type of modulator, and the results show improvement in modulation property over its as-grown rectangular quantum-well modulator. In particular, the change of reflectance in the diffused quantum-well modulator is almost 0.6 to 0.7, which is higher than that of the typically available values (/spl sim/0.5 to 0.6), while the OFF-state on-resonance reflectance is almost close to zero. The operation voltage is also reduced by more than half as the interdiffusion becomes extensive. The finesse of the more extensively diffused quantum well also increases. Both of these features contribute to an improvement of the change of reflectance in the modulator. The operation wavelengths can be adjusted over a range of 100 nm. However, the absorption coefficient change of the diffused quantum well increases only when there is a small amount of interdiffusion.