The influence of lateral carrier diffusion and surface recombination on the behavior of semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based MMIs

Author

De Merlier, Jan ; Morthier, Geert ; Baets, Roel

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Technol., Ghent Univ., Belgium

Volume

39

Issue

7

fYear

2003

fDate

7/1/2003 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

880

Lastpage

885

Abstract

The influence of lateral carrier diffusion and surface recombination on the self-imaging properties of semiconductor-optical-amplifier-based multimode interference couplers has been verified by simulations using a beam propagation method. It shows a significant degradation of the self-imaging properties of these devices. Buried heterostructures or deeply etched waveguide structures can decrease the impact when the degree of surface recombination is sufficiently low.

Keywords

carrier density; carrier lifetime; etching; light interference; optical couplers; optical images; semiconductor optical amplifiers; surface recombination; InGaAs-GaAs; InGaAsP-InP; buried heterostructures; deeply etched waveguide structures; degradation; finite difference beam propagation method; lateral carrier diffusion; multimode interference couplers; self-imaging properties; semiconductor optical amplifier-based MMI; simulations; surface recombination; Couplers; Degradation; Etching; Interference; Optical propagation; Optical surface waves; Optical waveguides; Radiative recombination; Semiconductor optical amplifiers; Semiconductor waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JQE.2003.813191

Filename

1206831