Conductivity-dependency-free in-plane poling for Mach-Zehnder modulator with highly conductive electro-optic polymer

Abstract

This letter presents the in-plane poling in electro-optic (EO) polymer modulators with conductivity dependency of core and claddings eliminated. A Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator with a highly conductive EO polymer, AJLS102/APC, is realized and poled by the in-plane coplanar waveguide poling electrode. Vπ of 7.7V in a single-arm poled MZ (3.8V for push-pull operation) is achieved and the evaluated r33 is 65pm∕V. Combined with the r33’s of the previously measured single layers and MZ modulators using two other EO polymers, this experiment proves that the r33 proportional to the single layer r33 can be achieved in an in-plane MZ device regardless of the material conductivities.

Recent progress toward a nanoslot modulator: polymer poling experiments

“…2) As the temperature is increased at the highest E field (-120 V/μm), the resistivity of the polymer decreases as expected which is consistent with other observations [7]. The resistance of the Si layer in series with the two Al contacts also decreases at higher temperatures.…”

High speed electro-optic polymer phase modulator using an in-plane slotline RF waveguide

“…For a polymeric EO modulator, the MZ intensity modulator using inplane CPW type has been proposed in order to enhance poling efficiency, overlap factor, and half wave voltage (V π ). Because the top and bottom cladding layers, necessary for optical guiding, experience part of the voltage drop across the microstrip line waveguide structure thereby reducing the voltage across the core layer, the in-plane CPW showed better performance than a conventional microstrip line structure 6,7 . For phase modulators, two possible RF structures are possible as shown in Fig.…”

Design and fabrication of DR1/PC-based electro-optic switch

“…As reported in paper, the E-O coefficients of the polymer AJ309, AJ-CKL1 are 142 pm/V and 80 pm/V, respectively. [9][10][11][12] However, these materials are broadly not available yet as commercial products for device fabrication. On the other hand, the commercially available Disperse Red 1 (DR1) and polycarbonate (PC) of bisphenol A can be easily purchased.…”