Folded-cavity resonators as key elements for optical filtering and low-voltage electroabsorption modulation

Folded-cavity (FC) resonators, which are based on shallow-etched ridge waveguides combined with four deeply etched turning mirrors, are designed and fabricated. The device consists of a resonant FC and a bus waveguide coupled to it through a directional coupler. Optical passive filters, based on this technology, exhibit quality factors in the excess of 5000, with a low insertion loss of 5 dB (including the input coupling loss to a fiber) and more than 15-dB extinction at resonance. When the filter is combined with an electroabsorption active region and is designed to operate in the overcoupled regime, a low-voltage/high-extinction-ratio resonant modulation becomes feasible. The resonant modulator exhibits a low insertion loss (greater than 22-dB extinction at resonance) and offers a low-voltage operation. A change in the applied voltage by 0.7 V (close to the critically coupled conditions) leads to a transmission change of more than 16 dB. Open eye diagrams at 12 Gb/s are presented. To decrease the insertion loss, multiple material bangaps are further monolithically integrated across the wafer by utilizing the quantum-well-intermixing techniques