Title :
Low-voltage traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator
Author :
Chiu, Yi-Jen ; Kaman, Volkan ; Zhang, Sheng Z. ; Piprek, Joachim ; Bowers, John E.
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Electr. & Comput. Eng., California Univ., Santa Barbara, CA, USA
Abstract :
Electroabsorption modulators (EAM) based on the quantum-confined-Stark QCS) effect have attracted a lot of interest in optical fiber communication due to their integrability with lasers, high extinction ratios and low chirp. At high frequency, the performance of conventional lump-electrode EAMs is limited by the total parasitic capacitance of the device, thus the device length can not be increased to improve the extinction ratio and saturation power. Based on the distributed effects, traveling-wave EA modulators (TWEAM) have been proposed to eliminate the lumped-element limits. In this paper, the practical issues of designing TWEAM for low-driving-voltage, high-speed and high-power operation are discussed
Keywords :
III-V semiconductors; electro-optical modulation; electroabsorption; gallium arsenide; gallium compounds; indium compounds; optical communication equipment; optical design techniques; optical waveguide theory; quantum confined Stark effect; ridge waveguides; semiconductor quantum wells; InGaAsP; high extinction ratios; high-power operation; high-speed; low chirp; low-driving-voltage; low-voltage traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator; lumped-element limits; optical fiber communication; quantum-confined-Stark effect; traveling-wave EA modulators; Chirp modulation; Coplanar waveguides; Extinction ratio; Frequency; Impedance; Microwave devices; Optical saturation; Optical waveguides; Quantum computing; Quantum well devices;
Conference_Titel :
Lasers and Electro-Optics Society, 2001. LEOS 2001. The 14th Annual Meeting of the IEEE
Conference_Location :
San Diego, CA
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-7105-4
DOI :
10.1109/LEOS.2001.969233
