Light modulation with electro-optic polymer-based resonant grating waveguide structures

Abstract

A novel modulator design incorporating an E-O polymer into a resonant grating waveguide structure is presented. Using purely polymeric material we developed a resonant grating waveguide structure having low loss and high finesse, with approximately 2nm spectral line width at 1.55 mum. An externally applied voltage modulates the refractive index of the E-O waveguide, thereby shifting the resonance wavelength and modulating the incident light at MHz rates. Such modulator operates in free space and does not involve waveguide patterning nor the need for facet conditioning and coupling common to operation in the Mach-Zehnder type configuration.

Tunable Liquid Crystal-Resonant Grating Filter Fabricated by Nanoimprint Lithography

“…A similar tuning range has been demonstrated using thermally tuned SRG [12]. By incorporating the electro-optic polymer DR1 into a resonant grating structure, an optical modulator was demonstrated [13]. To dramatically increase the tuning range, the use of liquid crystal is attractive as it has, with proper anchoring, some of the largest known electro-optic coefficients.…”

Electro-optic effect in BaTiO_3 for spectral tuning of narrowband resonances

“…Only a few studies are reported on guided-mode resonance filters including an active layer [electro-optic (E-O), magneto-optic, etc.] [6][7][8]. They focus on the tunability performances in some configurations without a detailed analysis aiming at improving the tunability and other important properties, such as angular tolerance and polarization independence.…”

Micromechanical and microfluidic devices incorporating resonant metallic gratings fabricated using nanoimprint lithography

“…1, thus allowing wavelength-tunable filters, optical modulators, and reconfigurable OADMs to be realized. Wavelength tuning can be accomplished by varying the grating period [13], the angle of incidence [14], or the index of refraction of the grating [15] or an adjacent layer [16]. We have chosen to investigate the latter approach, in which the resonance wavelength is controlled by varying the refractive index of the superstrate medium (n 1 ).…”