The effect of fabrication parameters on a ridge Mach-Zehnder interferometric (MZI) modulator

A study of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulators using unetched and etched Ti:LiNbO₃ waveguides has been made. A full vectorial finite-element-based mode solver was used, followed by a finite element-based solution of the Laplace equation to calculate the electrooptic effect and, subsequently, the half-wave voltage, V_π The optical loss due to the metal electrodes was also found using the H-field finite-element method (FEM) incorporating the perturbation method. The microwave effective index, n_m, and the characteristic impedance of the metal electrodes, Z_c, were also found for a number of electrode thicknesses and ridge heights. A semivectorial finite-element beam propagation method (SVFEBPM) was used to estimate the radiation loss for the curved input and output (I/O) waveguides of the MZI. The device characteristics were then studied by making changes to a number of fabrication parameters, of which the two most important were found to be the etch depth of the ridge and the thickness of the SiO₂ buffer layer.