TY - PAT
T1 - Tunable Fabry-Perot Interference Filter & Photodetector
AU - Zhang, Yong-Hang
PY - 1900/1/1
Y1 - 1900/1/1
N2 - The inventions of semiconductor lasers and photodetectors have enabled optical fiber communication, which has brought us into the information age. With the exploding development of optical communications, the optoelectronics industry is becoming more mature. The focus of optoelectronics research and development has been applied to many other applications such as CD players, barcode readers, and scientific instruments. However, the potential of semiconductor optoelectronics is still far from being completely exploited.Vertical cavity optoelectronic structures, such as vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's) and Faby-Perot modulators have seen much recent interest because of their potentila for low thresshold current, high speed modulation and ease of fabrication & packaging. Previous attempts to to tune the resonant wavelength have relied on modulation of the refractive index. However, given the limitations or refractive index modulation in semiconductors, broad continuous tuning may only be achievable through direct modulation of the cavity length. Althought this is impractical when the cavity medium is a semiconductor, it becomes feasible when the cavity is air or a vacuum. Using the principals described above along with a novel configuration, researchers at Arizona State University have devised a Fabry-Perot based interference filter and integrated photodetector that is fully tunable from near infra-red to green light. To our knowledge, this is the first tunable Fabry-Perot interference filter/photodetector and that is applicable to such a broad range in wavelength.
AB - The inventions of semiconductor lasers and photodetectors have enabled optical fiber communication, which has brought us into the information age. With the exploding development of optical communications, the optoelectronics industry is becoming more mature. The focus of optoelectronics research and development has been applied to many other applications such as CD players, barcode readers, and scientific instruments. However, the potential of semiconductor optoelectronics is still far from being completely exploited.Vertical cavity optoelectronic structures, such as vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSEL's) and Faby-Perot modulators have seen much recent interest because of their potentila for low thresshold current, high speed modulation and ease of fabrication & packaging. Previous attempts to to tune the resonant wavelength have relied on modulation of the refractive index. However, given the limitations or refractive index modulation in semiconductors, broad continuous tuning may only be achievable through direct modulation of the cavity length. Althought this is impractical when the cavity medium is a semiconductor, it becomes feasible when the cavity is air or a vacuum. Using the principals described above along with a novel configuration, researchers at Arizona State University have devised a Fabry-Perot based interference filter and integrated photodetector that is fully tunable from near infra-red to green light. To our knowledge, this is the first tunable Fabry-Perot interference filter/photodetector and that is applicable to such a broad range in wavelength.
M3 - Patent
ER -