1 THz modulation in InGaAsP multiple quantum wells for 40 Gb/s applications

The terahertz (THz) rate modulation of quantum well (QW) electrooptic modulators necessitates a new way of thinking about how the modulation field modulates light; specifically, an incident narrow-band (with respect to the modulation frequency) signal once modulated acquires frequency components separated from the input signal center frequency by multiples of the modulation frequency. In this paper, we discuss the design of the QWs comprising the modulator to maximize the output at such THz sidebands of the incident optical frequency in InGaAsP QW based devices. We present a theoretical treatment of the case in which the THz modulation frequency is out of resonance between any excitonic levels near those exploited for the optical modulation, thus enabling an adiabatic treatment of the modulated optical susceptibility. We show that THz sideband conversion efficiencies of similar to 1% may be possible.