POLARITON PROPAGATION IN COUPLED QUANTUM-WIRE WAVE-GUIDES

The propagation of the excitonic polariton along the directional coupl er consisting of adjacent parallel GaAs quantum-wire waveguides is sim ulated by using a finite element method. It is found that the coupling length is as short as 2.5-4 mu m, which is three orders of magnitude shorter than the conventional optical directional coupler made of bulk GaAs. Such short coupling length will make it possible to fabricate e xtremely small optoelectronic devices such as directional-coupler-type switches. (C) 1996 Academic Press Limited