Electrical-optical signal mixing and multiplication (2→22 GHz) with a tunnel junction transistor laser

H. W. Then, C. H. Wu, G. Walter, M. Feng, N. Holonyak

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A tunnel junction is incorporated at the collector of a transistor laser to provide an effective method for voltage-controlled modulation via internal (intracavity) Franz-Keldysh photon-assisted tunneling. Electrical-optical signal mixing above threshold is made possible by the nonlinear coupling of the optical field to the base emitter-to-collector carrier transport and the base-to-collector electron tunneling. Microwave signal mixing with a common-emitter tunnel junction transistor laser is demonstrated with a pair of input sinusoidal signals: one (f1 =2.0 GHz) at the base using current modulation and the other (f2 =2.1 GHz) at the collector using voltage modulation, producing an optical output with harmonics of up to (4 f1 +7 f2) =22.7 GHz, despite being limited by amplifier bandwidth.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number101114
JournalApplied Physics Letters
Volume94
Issue number10
DOIs
StatePublished - 2009

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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