Selective-area MOVPE growth for 10Gbit/s electroabsorption modulator integrated with a tunable DBR laser

Abstract We have designed and fabricated electroabsorption modulator integrated monolithically with a distributed Bragg reflector laser using selective area growth (SAG) by metalorganic vapor phase epitaxy (MOVPE). Through the bandgap engineering due to the growth rate enhancement and compositional variation from the difference of migration and/or diffusion length of species by various SAG mask pattern, we have achieved the photoluminescence peak wavelengths of active layer in the laser, modulator, and Bragg grating regions to 1.557, 1.503, and 1.442 μm, respectively. The electroabsorption modulator-integrated laser shows a good performance including threshold current of below 6 mA, output power of 5 mW for 45 mA current injected in the active region, and high side-mode suppression ratio over 45 dB with the 3-dB modulation bandwidth over 11 GHz.