Observation of polarization independent electric field effect in InGaAs/InP tensile strained quantum well and its proposal for optical switch

Abstract

We have experimentally observed the polarization independent electric field induced absorption coefficient variation in an InGaAs/InP tensile strained quantum well (QW) structure for the first time. We have also found that the field induced absorption coefficient/refractive index variation of strained QW for the transverse electric (TE) mode does not change appreciably from that of an unstrained one. Based on these results, we propose tensile strained QW for polarization independent optical switch/modulator.