PLZT film waveguide Mach-Zehnder electrooptic modulator

Abstract

We report the numerical analysis and the fabrication of a reversed-ridge PLZT film waveguide. It is single-mode, has low transmission loss, and has large transverse cross-section suitable for efficient coupling to single-mode optical fibers. We used this structure to fabricate Mach-Zehnder (MZ) waveguide modulators. The field distribution in the channel and Y branch waveguides was calculated using a beam propagation method to analyze the modal profiles and the propagation loss. The reversed-ridge waveguides and the MZ structures were fabricated on r-sapphire substrates with a patterned ITO spacer film by sol-gel deposition. At 1.55 /spl mu/m the propagation loss was 2.7 dB/cm. In the MZ, the half-wave modulation voltage was 8.5 V using 1.55 /spl mu/m light and electrode length of 3.5 mm.