Low-halfwave-voltage electro-optic polymer modulators: design and fabrication

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Abstract
Low halfwave voltage electrooptic modulators are desired in many applications. In this paper, two halfwave voltage reduction approaches are presented based on novel modulator architectures and the flexible processing properties of electrooptic polymers. Both approaches can significantly improve the modulation efficiency without compromising device performance. The fist is an optical push-pull approach in which the two arms of a Mach-Zehnder modulator are poled in opposite directions and a single microstrip line traveling wave electrode is used to maintain a wideband frequency response. A 50 percent reduction in halfwave voltage was obtained using the optical push-pull architecture. The modulation efficiency for optical push- pull is 3 dB higher than electrical push-pull because it uses only one modulation input source while electrical push- pull requires a 3 dB microwave splitter and phase inverter to drive two electrodes. The second approach is to fabricate an electrooptic polymer modulator using active polymers for both waveguiding and cladding layers. When a modulation electric field is applied, the index modulation in both guiding and cladding layers will result in a larger effective index modulation than that in structures with only an active guiding layer. Theoretical analysis, poling and driving electrode layout, fabrication techniques, and experimental results are discussed.

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