POTENTIAL FOR SIZE-REDUCTION OF ALGAAS OPTICAL CHANNEL WAVE-GUIDE STRUCTURES FABRICATED BY FOCUSED ION-BEAM IMPLANTATION AND OXIDATION

Optical channel waveguides formed by focused ion beam (FIB) implantati on-induced mixing of AlGaAs multiple quantum well structures and subse quent oxidation of the mixed regions have the potential of significant ly reducing the size of integrated photonic waveguide structures. Sinc e FIB implantation is a direct write process characterized by nanoscal e precision, we suggest its use for forming channel waveguides having nanoscale (submicrometer) widths. Calculations presented for such chan nel waveguides show reductions in size by at least an order of magnitu de are possible for directional couplers and other structures involvin g curved channel waveguide sections. Such size reductions would allow the realization of significantly higher levels of device integration t han are now currently possible. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rig hts reserved.