Meta-material enhanced photonic RF receiver

The development of a novel metamaterial enhanced photonic RF receiver is presented. The receiver consists of a D-ring structure designed on an electro-optic LiNbO₃ substrate to achieve direct modulation of RF signal into optical sideband. The optimized D-ring design provides strong electric field confinement, thereby resulting in significant improvement in detection sensitivity. Theoretical modeling, design, and optimization are performed to obtain optimal designs. Fabrication and characterization are followed to validate the proposed the design capable of over 10dB improvement in sensitivity. The proposed device demonstrates comparable sensitivity with conventional traveling wave EO modulator scheme with remarkable small aperture size, i.e., λ/25.