Strain effects on performance of electroabsorption optical modulators

Abstract

This paper reports a detailed theoretical investigation of strain effects on the performance of electroabsorption optical modulators based on the asymmetric intra-step-barrier coupled double strained quantum wells (AICD-SQWs) active layer. For this purpose, the electroabsorption coefficient was calculated over a range of AICD-SQWs strain from compressive to tensile strain. Then, the extinction ratio (ER) and insertion loss parameters were evaluated from calculated electroabsorption coefficient for transverse electric (TE) input light polarization. The results of the simulation suggest that the tensile strain from 0.05% to 0.2% strain in the wide quantum well has a significant impact on the ER and insertion loss as compared with compressive strain, whereas the compressive strain of the narrow quantum well from -0.5% to -0.7% strain has a more pronounced impact on the improvement of the ER and insertion loss as compared with tensile strain.

Keywords

asymmetric intra-step-barrier coupled double strained quantum wells (AICD-SQWs) / electroabsorption modulators / strain / insertion loss

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to express his gratitude to Professor V. Ahmadi and Dr. E. Darabi for the useful discussions.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg