Highly efficient chip-scale III-V/silicon hybrid optical amplifiers

We discuss the design and demonstration of highly efficient 1.55 mu m hybrid III-V/Silicon semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA). The optimized III-V wafer stack consists of Al0.10In0.71Ga0.18As multiple quantum wells (MQW) and Al0.48In0.52As electron stop layers to realize SOAs with high wall-plug efficiency (WPE). We present various designs and experimentally determine WPE values for 2 mW and 0.1 mW input power amplification. The 400 mu m long flared SOA achieved the highest WPE value of 12.1% for output power > 10mW and the 400 mu m long straight SOA achieved the highest WPE value of 7.3% for output power < 10mW. These are the highest WPE values ever obtained for 1.55 mu m SOAs. (C) 2015 Optical Society of America