Narrow-stripe selective MOVPE technique and its application to WDM devices

Selective MOVPE has many unique characteristics such as in-plane layer-thickness control and bandgap-energy control, which are achieved simply by changing the mask pattern. Narrow-stripe selective MOVPE (NS-MOVPE) offers further advantages because of its direct waveguide formation capability because no semiconductor mesa etching is needed to form DFB laser diode active layers and optical waveguides. Consequently, this technique has been extensively used to build various kinds of photonic devices and has achieved highly uniform device characteristics. NS-MOVPE can be used potentially to fabricate various advanced photonic devices for future WDM networks.