Design and fabrication of optical microcavities using III-V semiconductor-based MOEMS

The state of the art of III-V semiconductor based Micro-Opto-Mechanical Systems (MOEMS) is presented with a special emphasis on InP and related materials. It is shown that the MOEMS technology can enhance considerably the capabilities of optical micro-cavities, which are considered as a major component for optical signal processing and light generation. illustrations of the potential of III-V MOEMS are given in the fields of Optical Telecommunications. Design and fabrication of highly selective and widely tunable optical filters for Wavelength Division Multiplexing Systems are presented. These devices are monolithic and are based on surface micro-machining technology. They combine a variety of very attractive properties such as low control power, low insertion loss, tunability, small bandwidth no polarization dependence, simple fiber coupling, no memory effects and reasonable tuning speed. Fiber to fiber transmission characterizations of packaged filters are presented, including bit error rate measurements. Future prospects implying the use of multi-air-gap MOEMS structures as a basic building-block for a wide variety of routing photonic devices are proposed.