Lossless electroabsorption modulator monolithically integrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier and a passive waveguide

Abstract

We have developed a monolithic integrated device consisting of an electroabsorption modulator and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) connected by a deep-ridge passive waveguide by means of butt-joint selective area growth. Lossless operation with a high extinction ratio of 32 dB and clear eye opening at 10 Gb/s are successfully achieved. We confirm that the optical injection should be from the SOA side of the device to obtain a wide error-free range of incident optical power from -20 to +10 dBm. Our device could lead to richly functional photonic integrated circuits comprising arrayed waveguide gratings (AWGs) for advanced wavelength-division-multiplexing networks, since the passive waveguide has the same structure as AWGs.