High extinction ratio and saturation power traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator

An InGaAsP multiquantum-well traveling-wave electroabsorption modulator is demonstrated with high extinction ratio and modulation efficiency. By designing a strain-compensated quantum-well active region with traveling-wave design, high saturation power (>14 dBm) for >20-GHz high-speed performance (1.5 dB drop at 20 GHz) is achieved. Due to high modulation efficiency (>30 dBN for 0 to 1 V 40-dB extinction ratio in 2 V), error free 10-Gb/s operation with 1 V/sub p-p/ driving voltage is obtained. By comparing codirections and counterdirections of optical and microwave interactions, pulse generation at 40 GHz shows that the traveling-wave performance has an advantage for short pulses with high-power output, where pulsewidth as short as 4.5 ps is obtained in this kind of device.