RAPID DIRECT FABRICATION OF ACTIVE ELECTROOPTIC MODULATORS IN GAAS

We have developed several direct-write laser processing techniques to masklessly fabricate prototypes of waveguiding devices in GaAs / AlGaA s substrates. This flexible technology allows the rapid, successive fa brication and testing of devices such as modulators. Previously, we ha d reported use of this technology to fabricate low-loss single-mode pa ssive waveguiding structures and devices. In this paper, we report the fabrication of active electro-optic modulators. These devices include an electro-optic polarization modulator, an integrated amplitude modu lator consisting of a polarization modulator and an on-chip polarizer, and an integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer.