Prospective for Gallium Nitride-Based Optical Waveguide Modulators

Abstract

A complete analysis of GaN-based structures with very promising characteristics for future optical waveguide devices, such as modulators, is presented. First the material growth was optimized for low dislocation density and surface roughness. Optical measurements demonstrate excellent waveguide properties in terms of index and temperature dependence while planar propagation losses are below 1dB/cm. Bias was applied on both sides of the epitaxially grown films to evaluate the refractive index dependence on reverse voltage and a variation of 2.10-3 was found for 30V. These results support the possibility of using structures of this type for the fabrication of modulator devices such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers.