Electrooptic Polymer Modulator With Single-Mode to Multimode Waveguide Transitions

Author

DeRose, Christopher T. ; Mathine, David ; Enami, Yasufumi ; Norwood, Robert A. ; Luo, Jingdong ; Jen, Alex K -Y ; Peyghambarian, Nasser

Author_Institution

Coll. of Opt. Sci., Univ. of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Volume

20

Issue

12

fYear

2008

fDate

6/15/2008 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

1051

Lastpage

1053

Abstract

Grayscale lithography has been used to create refractive index (RI) tapers in an electrooptic (EO) polymer modulator. These RI tapers are used to convert a passive single-mode photobleached polymer waveguide to the fundamental mode of an unbleached, active multimode polymer waveguide. The benefits of this modulator design include a coupling loss reduction of 2.6 dB per interface and an increased confinement factor of 0.83. Using this design, an EO polymer modulator was fabricated with a half-wave voltage of 1.9 V, modulation extinction ratio of 15 dB, and a fiber to lens insertion loss of 11.6 dB.

Keywords

electro-optical modulation; optical losses; optical polymers; optical waveguides; confinement factor; electrooptic polymer modulator; grayscale lithography; insertion loss; loss reduction; modulation extinction ratio; multimode waveguide transitions; polymer waveguide; refractive index tapers; single-mode waveguide transitions; voltage 1.9 V; Electrooptic modulators; Electrooptical waveguides; Gray-scale; Lithography; Optical design; Photobleaching; Polymers; Refractive index; Voltage; Waveguide transitions; Electrooptic (EO) polymer; grayscale lithography; modulator; sol-gel;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2008.924177

Filename

4531612