Patent ID: 7369583

Claim:
A semiconductor optoelectronic device comprising: a) at least two resonant cavities comprising a first resonant cavity and a second resonant cavity; b) at least one modulator region which electrooptically tunes a resonant wavelength of the second cavity with respect to a resonant wavelength of the first cavity; c) at least one light generating element comprising a gain region, which generates light when a forward bias is applied to the gain region; and d) at least three electric contacts which apply bias to the modulator region and to the light generating element independently; wherein tuning varies an optical transmittance of the device, such that an output optical power is varied; and wherein the modulator region tunes the resonant wavelength of the second cavity using an effect selected from the group consisting of: i) a quantum confined Stark effect by applying a reverse bias to tune a resonant component of a refractive index of the modulator region; and ii) an exciton bleaching effect by injection of nonequilibrium carriers by applying a forward bias; wherein the device modulates a transmittance of light through a filter comprising at least two coupled cavities by modulating a resonance of at least one of the coupled cavities.