Low insertion loss and low dispersion penalty InGaAsP quantum-well high-speed electroabsorption modulator for 40-Gb/s very-short-reach, long-reach, and long-haul applications

We present a metal-organic-chemical-vapor-deposition-grown low-optical-insertion-loss InGaAsP/InP multiple-quantum-well electroabsorption modulator (EAM), suitable for both nonreturn-to-zero (NRZ) and return-to-zero (RZ) applications. The EAM exhibits a dynamic (RF) extinction ratio of 11.5 dB at 1550 nm for 3 Vp-p drive under 40-Gb/s modulation. The optical insertion loss of the modulator in the on-state is -5.2 dB at 1550 nm. In addition, the EAM also exhibits a 3-dB small-signal response (S21) of greater than 38 GHz, allowing it to be used in both 40-Gb/s NRZ and 10-Gb/s RZ applications. The dispersion penalty at 40 Gb/s is measured to be 1.2 dB over ±40 ps/nm of chromatic dispersion. Finally, we demonstrate 40-Gb/s transmission performance over 85 km and 700 km.