Abstract
We show that polarization-insensitive optical gain over a wide bandwidth can be realized in a coupled pseudomorphic multiple-quantum-well structure. The barrier width is chosen such that heavy-hole subbands are grouped tightly and light-hole subbands are widely separated in energy. For specific strain conditions, the uppermost valence subbands, which have large occupation probability and strongly contribute to the gain, consist of a single light-hole subband and a group of coupled heavy-hole subbands. This arrangement gives rise to balanced gains for the TE and TM polarizations. We present calculated results for 1.3-μm semiconductor optical amplifier structures based on bands calculated in the framework of an eight-band k·p model. Two different material systems are examined, InAlGaAs and GaInAsP, on InP substrates.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 1509-1514 |
Number of pages | 6 |
Journal | IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 10 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Oct 1999 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Manuscript received November 13, 1998; revised May 18, 1999. This work was supported in part by DARPA/AFOSR under Contract F49620-96-1-011. The authors are with the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455 USA. Publisher Item Identifier S 0018-9197(99)07600-9.