Electro-optic switch adopting the carrier injection effects

A double hetero-structure intersecting waveguide modulator is designed and analyzed. Adopting the carrier injection effects, a well-confined injection carrier channel is formed, which can act as a waveguide or as antiwaveguide. A transversal electrode switches the modulator from the on-state to the off-state or vice versa. The design is made to optimize the switch performance and to obtain the smallest injection current. The analysis is carried out adopting the finite difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM) and a random searching optimization procedure. The fabrication process of the modulator is easy, so the switch is suitable for use in GaAs monolithic optoelectronic integrated devices.