A GaAlAs-GaAs integrated coherence modulator

Sabry Khalfallah (1) , Pascal Dubreuil (2) , Laurent Escotte (1) , René Legros (3) , Chantal Fontaine (3) , A. Muñoz-Yagüe (3) , Bruno Bêche (4, 5) , Henri Porte (6)

1 LAAS - Laboratoire d'analyse et d'architecture des systèmes
2 LAAS-TEAM - Service Techniques et Équipements Appliqués à la Microélectronique
3 LAAS-PHOTO - Équipe Photonique
4 IUF - Institut universitaire de France
5 IPR - Institut de Physique de Rennes
6 Photline Technologies - Photline Technologies

This paper presents a novel integrated III-V semiconductor waveguide modulator specially designed to generate optical delays of several hundred micrometers. This is achieved by simultaneous propagation of transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) lowest order modes in an original layered waveguide exhibiting a group birefringence greater than 0.02 at 1.3 /spl mu/m. The device has 40% contrast, a switching voltage of 7 V with a 10-mm long electrode and is suitable for transmission and multiplexing of signals by coherence modulation of light in an optical fiber network powered by a short coherence source such as a superluminescent diode.

Domaines: Optique / photonique; Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique; Matériaux; Physique Générale [physics.gen-ph]

Sabry Khalfallah, Pascal Dubreuil, Laurent Escotte, René Legros, Chantal Fontaine, et al.. A GaAlAs-GaAs integrated coherence modulator. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 1999, 17 (1), pp.103-107. ⟨10.1109/50.737428⟩. ⟨hal-01556253⟩