MONOLITHIC INTEGRATION VIA A UNIVERSAL DAMAGE ENHANCED QUANTUM-WELL INTERMIXING TECHNIQUE

A novel technique for quantum-well intermixing is demonstrated, which has proven a reliable means for obtaining postgrowth shifts in the ban d edge of a wide range of m-V material systems. The technique relies u pon the generation of point defects via plasma induced damage during t he deposition of spattered SiO2, and provides a simple and reliable pr ocess for the fabrication of both wavelength tuned lasers and monolith ically integrated devices. Wavelength; tuned broad area oxide demonstr ated in InGaAs-InAlGaAs, InGaAs-InGaAsP, and GaInP-AlGaInP quantum web systems, and it is shown that low absorption losses are obtained afte r intermixing, Oxide stripe lasers with integrated slab waveguides hav e also enabled the production of a narrow single lobed far held (3 deg rees) pattern in both InGaAs-InAlGaAs, and GaInP-AlGaInP devices. Exte nded cavity ridge waveguide lasers operating at 1.5 mu m are demonstra ted with low lass (alpha = 4.1 cm(-1)) waveguides, and it is shown tha t this loss is limited only by free carrier absorption in waveguide cl adding layers. In addition, the operation of intermixed multimode inte rference couplers is demonstrated, where four GaAs-AlGaAs laser amplif iers are monolithically integrated to produce high output powers of 18 0 mW in a single fundamental mode. The results illustrate that the tec hnique can routinely he used to fabricate low-loss optical interconnec ts and offers a very promising route toward photonic integration.