Gallium Aluminum Arsenide/Gallium Arsenide Integrated Optical Repeater

Abstract

A low threshold buried heterostructure laser, a metal-semiconductor field effect transistor (MESFET), and a photodiode, have for the first time, been monolithically integrated on a semi-insulating GaAs substrate. This integrated optoelectronic circuit (IOEC) was operated as a rudimentary optical repeater. The incident optial signal is detected by the photodiode, amplified by the MESFET, and converted back to light by the laser. The gain bandwidth product of the repeater was measured to be 178 MHz.