Broadband low-drive voltage polymer electro-optic modulator

David L. K. Eng; Stephen Kozacik; Benjamin C. Olbricht; Shouyuan Shi; Dennis W. Prather

doi:10.1117/12.909209

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28 February 2012 Broadband low-drive voltage polymer electro-optic modulator

David L. K. Eng, Stephen Kozacik, Benjamin C. Olbricht, Shouyuan Shi, Dennis W. Prather

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Proceedings Volume 8259, RF and Millimeter-Wave Photonics II; 82590C (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.909209
Event: SPIE OPTO, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

An all-polymer high-frequency Mach-Zehnder modulator that can be fabricated using standard UV lithography is proposed. The optical waveguide structure consists of three polymer layers, two low-index, outer cladding layers and an organic-electro-optic material in a polymer host as the core. Lateral confinement is provided by a trench that is defined in the lower cladding layer, resulting in an inverted electro-optic polymer ridge waveguide. The inverted nature of this trench structure allows for a fabrication process in which the cladding layer is patterned, and the highly sensitive electrooptic material is simply spun on and cured. Microstrip transmission line electrodes patterned on the outer cladding, over the optical waveguides provide the modulation field. Similar devices using CLD1 or AJL8, as the electro-optic material have been numerically analyzed at up to 260GHz, and characterized at frequencies up to 40 GHz, but to date no electrooptic polymer device has been characterized at such high frequencies. A recently developed material, IKD-1-50, with electro-optic coefficients up to five times larger than CLD1 and AJL8 will be utilized as the core layer for the optical waveguide. The greater nonlinearity of these materials will yield a device with a lower Vπ. Additionally, high frequency characterization up to 300GHz will demonstrate the high bandwidth application possibilities of these new materials.

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David L. K. Eng, Stephen Kozacik, Benjamin C. Olbricht, Shouyuan Shi, and Dennis W. Prather "Broadband low-drive voltage polymer electro-optic modulator", Proc. SPIE 8259, RF and Millimeter-Wave Photonics II, 82590C (28 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.909209

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