EXPERIMENTAL-OBSERVATION OF VERTICAL-CAVITY WITH POLARIZATION BIREFRINGENCE USING ASYMMETRIC SUPERLATTICE

Vertical cavity etalons with asymmetric superlattice claddings have been fabricated. As predicted earlier, the cavities with sawtooth superlattice claddings grown on (100) oriented substrate are birefringent with the new optical axes along (011) and (0 $($) over bar$$ 11) directions. The difference in the resonant wavelengths of the cavity modes polarized along (011) and (0 $($) over bar$$ 11) are measured to be about +0.3 and -0.3 Angstrom for the two senses of our sawtooth superlattice structures. The change of the sign of the wavelength shift indicates that the observation is not due to an electro-optic effect of the incorporated p-n junction but is due to the reduction of the III-V crystalline symmetry by the presence of the asymmetric superlattice. (C) 1995 American Institute of Physics.