The performance of pigtailed annealed proton exchange LiNbO₃ modulators at cryogenic temperatures

Abstract

Integrated optic modulators have been proposed for transmitting signals from electronic and electrooptic devices which must operate at 77 K and colder. In this letter, the V/spl pi/ of LiNbO/sub 3/ modulators at temperatures as cold as 10 K are measured. A /spl sim/9.25% increase over room temperature values is seen. This increase is attributed primarily to a temperature dependence in r/sub 33/. In addition, temperature-induced insertion loss changes are evaluated for two different pigtailing techniques and one is shown to be suitable for cryogenic operation.