Tunable Optoelectronic Devices

Tunable devices are key components for various applications, such as wavelength division multiplexed (WDM) optical networks, optical interconnects, spectroscopy, infrared imaging and optical sensing. Various structures and designs have been reported for different applications. Micromechanically actuated devices have intrinsic advantages such as large dynamic range, fast tuning speed, a simple control mechanism, small size, cost effectiveness and process compatibility with other optoelectronic devices. This book discusses design, fabrication and application of monolithically tunable devices done in GaAs. The devices, including filters, detectors and vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELS), were designed for applications in communications, IR imaging and biosensing. Among some of the results to be shown are a torsional tunable filter, which provided a record tuning range of more than 100nm around 1550nm, and a high sensitivity biosensor using VCSEL, with sensitive to proteins in the femtoMol range.