Active antireflection coating electrooptic modulator

A new type of multiple quantum well (MQW) reflection modulator, based on the multilayer active antireflection coating (A-ARC) is proposed and compared theoretically with the conventional MQW modulator based on the asymmetric Fabry-Perot etalon (AFP). It is shown that both a large on-off ratio and a low operating voltage can be achieved. It will be demonstrated that the A-ARC device matches the performance of the recently reported asymmetric Fabry-Perot modulator while requiring smaller device thickness. It will also be shown that A-ARC MQW modulators exhibit superior tolerance to the unavoidable thickness variations, thus allowing fabrication of large-area uniform arrays of modulators.