Polymeric Electro-Optic Waveguide Modulator; Materials And Fabrication

Abstract
In this paper, we are reporting on organic polymeric materials designed for electro-optic waveguide device fabrication and a fabrication method for low loss integrated optical devices. These polymers are methacrylic chain polymers with non-linear optical moieties attached as side chains through variable length spacer groups. Variation of the spacer length allows the tailoring of the phase structure of the polymers as well as the glass transition temperature. For electro-optic device use, the most important material parameter is r3 3 the largest tensor element of the electro-optic tensor. We have developed polymeric materials with r3 3 values as high as 45 pm/V at 1.3 microns (98 pm/V at 632 nm) using an electrical poling process. Additionally, we have characterized optical and electrical properties of the polymer films. Further, a fabrication process for waveguide electro-optic devices from the polymers has been developed and integrated modulators have been built.

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