Semiconductor device with electrostatic control
AssigneeCalifornia Institute of Technology
InventorsJohn OBrien, Axel Scherer, Amnon Yariv, Reginald Lee, Yuanjian Xu, Oskar Painter
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A semiconductor light-emitting device having one or more depletion regions that are controlled by one or more control electrodes to vary the spatial distribution of the carriers in an active layer. The voltages on the control electrodes can be controlled to modulate the current density in the active layer and the output light intensity. The polarization of a surface emitting diode laser based on this device can be controlled or modulated.
Claims26
A semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor substrate, comprising:
- an active semiconductor medium layer responsive to a driving current across said active semiconductor medium layer to produce photons;
- a first semiconductor cladding layer formed on a first side of said active semiconductor medium layer;
- a second semiconductor cladding layer formed on a second opposing side of said active semiconductor medium layer, said first and second cladding layers operable to confine said photons within said active semiconductor medium layer;
- first and second ohmic contacts respectively formed on said first side and second opposing side of said active semiconductor medium layer to supply said driving current;
- an optical cavity formed to enclose at least a portion of said active semiconductor medium layer and having a cavity optic axis substantially perpendicular to said active semiconductor medium layer, said optical cavity controlling said photons to travel along said cavity optic axis;
- and
- a plurality of control electrodes separate from one another and disposed relative to said active semiconductor medium layer, at least one control electrode biased at a first control potential and one control electrode biased at a second control potential to control a spatial distribution of said driving current in said active semiconductor medium layer such that said driving current has an elongated cross section profile to make a polarization of said photons along the elongation direction.
A semiconductor device formed on a semiconductor substrate, comprising:
- an active semiconductor medium layer responsive to a driving current to produce photons;
- a first semiconductor cladding layer formed on a first side of said active semiconductor medium layer;
- a second semiconductor cladding layer formed on a second opposing side of said active semiconductor medium layer, said first and second cladding layers operable to confine said photons within said active semiconductor medium layer;
- first and second ohmic contacts respectively formed on said first side and second opposing side of said active semiconductor medium layer to supply said driving current;
- first and second optical reflectors respectively formed on said first and second sides of said active semiconductor medium layer to form an optical cavity that encloses at least a portion of said active semiconductor medium layer and has a cavity optic axis substantially perpendicular to said active semiconductor medium layer;
- and
- a plurality of control electrodes disposed relative to said active semiconductor medium layer and electrically biased with respect to at least one of said first and second ohmic contacts, at least one control electrode biased at a first control potential and one control electrode biased at a second control potential to control a spatial distribution of said driving current in said active semiconductor medium layer to have an elongated cross sectional profile so as to control a polarization direction of said photons that is substantially perpendicular to said cavity optic axis.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.