Abstract

Future developments in optical communications, interconnects and information processing rely on availability of integratable, tunable, surface-normal geometry mirrors and filters. In this paper, we present the first tunable multiple quantum well (MQW) distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) with inter-digitated contacts. This contacting scheme, shown in Fig. 1, allows us to apply large fields across MQW λ/4 layers producing electro-refraction and electro-absorption associated with the quantum confined Stark effect. Compared to our previous MQW DBR [1], where the applied voltage dropped across the entire mirror stack, in this work we obtain similar changes in reflectivity with nearly 20 times lower voltages.

© 1993 Optical Society of America