Electroabsorption modulators for high-bit-rate optical communications: a comparison of strained InGaAs/InAIAs and InGaAsP/InGaAsP MQW

Abstract

Conventional high-speed (>10 GHz) external modulators at 1.55 mu m exist in various types and on several kinds of substrate material. Only electroabsorption modulators on InP have so far demonstrated polarization-independent operation at high speeds. In this paper, the properties of two strained multiple quantum well (MQW) modulators are reviewed in the context of optical fibre communications in terms of loss, drive voltage, bandwidth (>40 GHz), eye diagram, bit error rate measurements and optical power handling capacity. An effective modulation polarization sensitivity of 0.6 dB is reported. The two components differ mainly in their saturation optical power levels. A new power saturation mechanism is proposed to explain the nonlinearity of the InGaAs/lnAIAs modulator.