Electroabsorption and refractive index modulation induced by intersubband transitions in GaN/AlN multiple quantum wells.

The aim of the present paper was to determine the index variation in the GaN/AlN heterostructures related to the population/depletion of the quantum well fundamental state leading to the absorption variation in the spectral domain around 1.5 µm. The variation of the refractive index was deduced from the shift of the position of the beating interference maxima of different order modes in a guided wave configuration. The obtained index variation with bias from complete depletion to full population of the quantum wells is around -5 × 10(-3). This value is similar to the typical index variation achieved in InP and is an order of magnitude higher than the index variation obtained in silicon.