A 10-GHz Bandwidth Electroabsorption Modulated Laser by Ultra-Low-Pressure Selective Area Growth

A novel integration technique has been developed using band-gap energy control of InGaAsP/InGaAsP multi-quantum-well (MQW) structures during simultaneous ultra-low-pressure (22 mbar) selective-area-growth (SAG) process in metal-organic chemical vapour deposition. A fundamental study of the controllability of band gap energy by the SAG method is performed. A large band-gap photoluminescence wavelength shift of 83nm is obtained with a small mask width variation (0--30μm). The method is then applied to fabricate an MQW distributed-feedback laser monolithically integrated with an electroabsorption modulator. The experimental results exhibit superior device characteristics with low threshold of 19mA, over 24dB extinction ratio when coupled into a single mode fibre. More than 10GHz modulation bandwidth is also achieved, which demonstrates that the ultra-low-pressure SAG technique is a promising approach for high-speed transmission photonic integrated circuits.