Abstract

III–V semiconductors allow considerable flexibility in the design of electrooptic waveguide devices because of the ability to control the profiles of optical and applied electric fields independently. Doping variations, including p – n junctions, are used to control the profile of the electric field, while changes in composition are used to provide the appropriate refractive-index profiles that determine the optical mode shape and position. A figure of merit for many electrooptic devices is the change in propagation constant with voltage (δ/β/V). For a slab waveguide δ/β/V = F × G with where ψ(x) is the optical field, and E(x) is the applied electric field. F can be considered as an overlap factor and is independent of wavelength and material properties.

© 1986 Optical Society of America