Patent ID: 8492863

Claim:
An optical modulator comprising: a bottom Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) layer; a top DBR layer comprising at least one layer, and a modified layer; and an active layer disposed between the bottom and the top DBR layers and comprising multiple quantum wells (MQW), wherein the at least one layer comprises at least one pair of a first refractive index layer having a first refractive index and a second refractive index layer having a second refractive index, each of the first and the second refractive index layers having a first optical thickness of λ/4 or an odd multiple thereof and the first and the second refractive indexes being different, wherein the modified layer comprises at least one pair of a third refractive index layer having a third refractive index and a fourth refractive index layer having a fourth refractive index, the third and the fourth refractive indexes being different, and wherein λ is a center absorption wavelength in the active layer and at least one of the third and the fourth refractive index layers has a second optical thickness that is not λ/4 or that is not an odd multiple thereof.