Title :
Absorption recovery in strongly saturated quantum-well electroabsorption modulators
Author :
Højfeldt, Sune ; Romstad, Francis ; Mørk, Jesper
Author_Institution :
COM, Tech. Univ. of Denmark, Lyngby, Denmark
fDate :
5/1/2003 12:00:00 AM
Abstract :
We observe experimentally that a quantum-well electroabsorption modulator, when strongly saturated by a highly energetic optical pulse, may exhibit an absorption recovery time much longer than for excitation with a low-energy pulse. Using a comprehensive drift-diffusion type model, we are able to explain this effect theoretically. The prolongation of the absorption recovery is induced by carrier distribution effects, not by field-induced changes in the dynamical transport parameters such as the time carriers take to escape from the wells.
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; carrier density; electro-optical modulation; electroabsorption; gallium arsenide; indium compounds; optical saturable absorption; quantum well devices; semiconductor quantum wells; InGaAsP; InGaAsP p-i-n structure; absorption recovery; carrier distribution effects; carrier sweep-out dynamics; drift-diffusion type model; dynamical transport parameters; highly energetic optical pulse; strongly saturated quantum-well electroabsorption modulators; Absorption; Electron mobility; Optical pulses; Optical signal processing; Optical wavelength conversion; Poisson equations; Pulse generation; Pulse modulation; Quantum wells; Schrodinger equation;
Journal_Title :
Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE
DOI :
10.1109/LPT.2003.809986
