In traveling wave modulators which velocity to match?

Abstract

Optical modulators with very wide electrical bandwidths are essential components for optical control of microwaves and millimeter waves as well as high speed optical communication systems. A very desirable approach to obtain very wide electrical bandwidths is the so-called traveling wave design. In such a design electrode is designed as a transmission line. Therefore, electrode capacitance is distributed and does not limit the modulator speed. In this summary we will only concentrate on the measured small signal modulation response of the GaAs-AlGaAs electro optical modulator device at 1.3 and 1.55 /spl mu/m.