PASSIVE WAVEGUIDE STRUCTURE WITH ALTERNATING GAINAS/ALINAS LAYERS FOR MID-INFRARED OPTOELECTRONIC DEVICES

摘要

Disclosed is a semiconductor optical emitter having an optical mode and a gain section, the emitter comprising a low loss waveguide structure made of two alternating layers of semiconductor materials A and B, having refractive indexes of Na and Nb, respectively, with an effective index No of the optical mode in the low loss waveguide between Na and Nb, wherein No is within a 5% error margin of identical to a refractive index of the gain section and wherein the gain section is butt-jointed with the low loss waveguide, and wherein the size and shape of the optical mode(s) in the low loss waveguide and gain section are within a 10% error margin of equal. Desirably, at least one of the semiconductor materials A and B has a sufficiently large band gap that the passive waveguide structure blocks current under a voltage bias of 15 V.

主权项

1. A semiconductor optical emitter having an optical mode and a gain section, the emitter comprising a low loss waveguide structure made of alternating layers of at least two semiconductor materials A and B, having refractive indexes of Na and Nb, respectively, with an effective index No of the optical mode in the low loss waveguide between Na and Nb,
wherein a ratio of thicknesses of the materials A and B is selected in order to form the low loss waveguide with the effective index No that is within a desired error margin of identical to a refractive index of the gain section. 2. The emitter of claim 1 wherein at least one of the semiconductor materials A and B has a sufficiently large band gap that the passive waveguide structure blocks current under a voltage bias of 15 V.