Feature

Optical Modulation with a Resonant Tunneling Diode

S. G. McMeekin, Cardiff School of Engineering, University of Wales Cardiff, Cardiff, Wales, U.K. and C. N. Ironside, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, Scotland, U.K.

Since the discovery that the resonant tunneling diode (RTD) has sufficient negative differential resistance for practical devices most work has concentrated on entirely electronic devices for microwave applications and for sub-millimeter wave generation where oscillation at frequencies up to 720 GHz have been achieved. Recently we reported on an optoelectronic application of a resonant tunneling diode in which we used a simple direct integration scheme to achieve optoelectronic modulation from the electric field associated with the RTD, by embedding the RTD directly in an optical waveguide.