Micro-electromechanically tunable vertical cavity photonic device and a method of fabrication thereof

• US 6,546,029 B2
• Filed: 03/15/2001
• Issued: 04/08/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/15/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Ecole polytechnique fãdãrale de lausanne epfl (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft)
• Original Assignee: Ecole polytechnique fãdãrale de lausanne epfl (Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft)
• Inventors: Suruceanu, Grigore, Sirbu, Alexei, Kapon, Elyahou, Iakovlev, Vladimir, Rudra, Alok
• Primary Examiner(s): LEUNG, QUYEN PHAN
• Application Number:
  US09/809,236
• Publication Number:
  US 20020131458A1
• Time in Patent Office: 754 Days
• Field of Search: 372/20, 372/45, 372/46, 372/96, 359/291
• US Class Current: 372/20
• CPC Class Codes: B82Y 20/00 Nanooptics, e.g. quantum optics or photonic crystals
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/041 Optical pumping
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/18341 Intra-cavity contacts
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/18366 Membrane DBR, i.e. a movable DBR on top of the VCSEL
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/1838 Reflector bonded by wafer fusion or by an intermediate compound
• CPC Class Codes: H01S 5/34306 emitting light at a wavelength longer than 1000nm, e.g. InP based 1300 and 1500nm lasers

Abstract

A tunable Fabry-Perot vertical cavity photonic device and a method of its fabrication are presented. The device comprises top and bottom semiconductor DBR stacks and a tunable air-gap cavity therebetween. The air-gap cavity is formed within a recess in a spacer above the bottom DBR stack. The top DBR stack is carried by a supporting structure in a region thereof located above a central region of the recess, while a region of the supporting structure above the recess and outside the DBR stack presents a membrane deflectable by the application of a tuning voltage to the device contacts.

Claims

1. A tunable Fabry-Perot vertical cavity device comprising top and bottom semiconductor distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) stacks separated by a tunable air-gap cavity and a supporting structure that carries the top DBR stack, wherein the air-gap cavity is located within a recess formed in a spacer completely covered by the supporting structure, the top DBR stack being centered around a vertical axis passing through the center of said recess and having a lateral dimension smaller than the lateral dimension of the recess, a region of the supporting structure outside the top DBR stack and above the recess presenting a membrane to be deflected by application of a tuning voltage to electrical contacts of the device.

2. The device according to claim 1, wherein a mesa is located on the bottom of said recess and centered about the central vertical axis passing through the center of the recess, said mesa having a lateral size and a height of less than 10 and less than {fraction (1/30)}, respectively, of an operational wavelength of the device.

3. The device according to claim 1, wherein said spacer is placed on the bottom DBR stack.

4. The device according to claim 3, being operable as a tunable optical filter.

5. The device according to claim 1, and also comprising an active cavity material between the bottom DBR stack and the spacer, the device being operable as a tunable vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL).

6. The device according to claim 5, wherein said active cavity material comprises a semiconductor multiquantum well (MQW) light-emitting material located between said spacer and said bottom DBR stack.

7. The device according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of said membrane is about 1 μ

m.