An integrated two-stage cascaded Mach-Zehnder device in GaAs

An integrated, cascaded, asymmetric GaAs/AlGaAs Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer, for use in wavelength filtering and time-domain multiplexing, has been designed, fabricated, and tested, This device employs several new passive components, including height-tapered Y-branches, for uniform splitting and recombining, and index-tailored waveguide bends, for low-loss operation. The waveguide bend is designed with a predistorted index profile for minimizing both transition loss and radiation loss. The circuit is fabricated with a resistless, light-induced local etching technique, which enables rapid iterative fabrication of the device geometry to achieve the desired operating path delays. Acting as a wavelength filter, the fabricated device has a -24.3 dB minimum-to-maximum extinction ratio and a -10.5 dB side-lobe suppression ratio. Acting as a pulse-rate multiplexer, the device generates a four-pulse train with a 10-ps pulse-to-pulse separation and an amplitude uniformity of 80% for each input pulse.