Characterization and simulation of proton exchanged integrated optical modulators with various dielectric buffer layers

Fast and accurate numerical techniques are developed for calculating the optical depth of modulation of integrated optical devices with various dielectric buffer layers. The matrix effective refractive-index method is used in calculating the LiNbO₃ proton exchange single-channel optical mode parameters. An approximate technique for calculating electrode electric-field distributions as a function of various buffer layers is presented. Comparisons of computer simulations to experimental measurements performed on Mach-Zehnder modulators containing various buffer layers demonstrate that the numerical techniques are sufficiently accurate for computer-aided design use