Quantum-well intermixing for fabrication of lasers and photonic integrated circuits

Various applications of quantum-well intermixing, ranging from multiwavelength lasers to complex photonic integrated circuits, are described. The fabrication of these GaAs-AlGaAs-based devices relies on the postgrowth definition of regions with varying bandgap, enabling the manufacture of wavelength shifted modulators and lasers, as well as the integration of transparent waveguides with absorbing lasers and detectors. The impurity-free vacancy-enhanced disordering technique employed, and its integration with existing process technologies, will be presented, and examples of multicolor lasers, wavelength shifted modulators and integrated optical interferometers are shown. These applications yield high-optical functionality using relatively simple process and integration technology.