Semiconductor waveguide optical isolator based on nonreciprocal loss induced by ferromagnetic MnAs

Abstract

We fabricated TM mode InGaAlAs∕InP active waveguide optical isolators based on the magnetically induced nonreciprocal loss. We used epitaxially grown MnAs thin films as ferromagnetic electrodes of the semiconductor active waveguide optical isolators. We demonstrated TM mode nonreciprocal propagation (8.8dB∕mm) at 1540nm with an excellent ferromagnetic electrode contact, which has greater semiconductor active waveguide optical isolator performance than that of our previously reported devices with Ni∕Fe polycrystalline electrodes.

Enhancement of the transverse non-reciprocal magneto-optical effect

“…The ellipticity is close to circular for the waveguiding mode. That is the reason why the experimentally observed transverse nMO effect in waveguides is substantial [9][10][11][12] . The data were calculated by solving Maxwell's equations and utilizing known optical and magneto-optical constants of transition metals 19,20 and semiconductors 21 .…”

“…The second example is light propagation in an optical waveguide covered by a ferromagnetic metal. In the case of a magnetic field applied perpendicularly to the light propagation direction in a waveguide plane, the absorption of the waveguide mode is significantly different for two opposite directions of the magnetic field [8][9][10][11][12] . The third example is a waveguide covered by a transparent MO material, in this case the propagation speed of waveguide mode changes when the applied magnetic field is reversed 13,14 .…”

Origin and control of ferromagnetism in dilute magnetic semiconductors and oxides (invited)

“…79 If sufficiently high TMR will be found, one can envisage the field programmable logic (TMRbased connecting/disconnecting switches) 80 and even allmagnetic logic, characterized by low power consumption and radiation hardness. Furthermore, a combination of a strong magnetic circular dichroism and weak losses suggest possible applications as optical isolators 81 as well as 3D tunable photonic crystals and spatial light modulators for advanced photonic applications.…”

Low‐temperature heteroepitaxial growth of InAlAs layers on ZnSnAs2/InP(001)

“…However, their Curie temperatures were found to be much lower than room temperature. In contrast to III-V based DMSs, ZnSnAs 2 :Mn thin films grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) have been reported as a candidate for ferromagnetic semiconductors in InP-based spintronic applications [14][15][16]. The ZnSnAs 2 :Mn thin films are well lattice-matched with InP substrates, within only 0.3% lattice-mismatch [17][18][19][20][21], and show a room-temperature ferromagnetism of more than 300 K [22,23].…”