High frequency operation of an integrated electro-absorption modulator onto a VCSEL

International audienceWe present in this paper the vertical integration of an electro-absorption modulator (EAM) onto a VCSEL. We discuss the design, fabrication, and measured characteristics of the combined VCSEL and EAM. We previously demonstrated a standalone EAM with an optical bandwidth around 30 GHz. In this paper we present for the first time an optical bandwidth of 30 GHz for an electro-absorption modulator integrated onto a VCSEL. This device exhibits single-mode operation and a very low chirp, below 0.1 nm, even with a modulation depth of 70 % which makes this device very competitive for high-speed communications in data centers