order-creating-national-strategic-computing-initiative Some believe that interconnects inevitably will need to employ WDM and integrated photonics, because of the scale promised by these technologies.

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For wavelengths near the quantum well absorption edge it is found that fewer quantum wells favor ideal phase modulation in GaAs/AlGaAs waveguide modulators. This is due to the dominance of the linear electro-optic effect over quantum absorption effects in the separate confinement waveguide. For TE polarization, it is found that the chirp parameter varies from <1 to >10 at −5 V and λ=0.89 μm in actual devices depending on the number of wells. The data fit estimates from theory. For TM polarization no dependence was observed as expected. For an integrated laser/phase modulator (with different absorption edges) a 4-well structure may be near optimum to maximize the modulation efficiency and to still have low laser threshold current.

The characteristics of novel reverse-biased waveguide phase modulators are reported. These devices, which use the translation of a depletion edge, have provided the highest efficiency figure of merit (56 °/Vmm) ever reported for a reverse-biased device. Furthermore, the speed of the device is only limited by the RC time constant. The investigated devices were GaAs/AlGaAs ridge waveguide modulators, a geometry which is well suited for integrated optoelectronics.

We have intermixed GaAs/(AlGa)As multiquantum structures for waveguides and lasers by 3 MeV Ar implantation and 850 °C, 30 min closed-tube annealing. Buried-heterostructure lasers defined by Ar mixing had threshold currents of 100 mA for 370-μm-long devices. As waveguides for 1.15 μm light, the devices exhibited losses of 25 cm−1 in the annealed, implanted regions, and 15 cm−1 in unimplanted regions defined by adjacent implants. Analysis of the results illustrates important considerations for implant mixing for waveguide formation.