Electro-optic modulator with exceptional power-size performance enabled by transparent conducting electrodes

Abstract

An EO phase modulator having transparent conducting oxide electrodes and an inverted rib waveguide structure is demonstrated. This new modulator geometry employs an EO polymer having an in-device r33 = 60pm/V. The measured half-wave voltage Vpi of these devices ranges from 5.3V to 11.2V for 3.8 and 1.5 mm long devices, respectively. The lowest VpiL figure-of-merit corresponds to 0.6V-cm (7.2mW-cm(2) of power length product) in a dual-drive configuration. The trade-off between Vpi, insertion loss and modulation bandwidth is systematically analyzed. An optimized high-speed structure is proposed, with numerical simulation showing that this new structure and an in-device r33 = 150pm/V, can achieve Vpi = 0.5V in a 5mm long active length with dual drive operation. The insertion loss is targeted at 6dB, and a 3dB optical modulation bandwidth can reach > 40GHz.