Integrated optic electrooptic modulator electrode analysis

Abstract

Integrated optical (IO) switches and modulators are based on the electrooptic effect obtained by applying a voltage between electrodes fabricated on the surface of a crystal (for example, LiNbO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> ). In this paper, we calculate the change in the optical propagation constant in single mode <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Z</tex> -cut LiNbO <inf xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</inf> :Ti-diffused waveguides for a variety of electrode configurations. These calculations are compared to experimental data from IO devices. The calculations predict the observed variations in switching voltage with wavelength and electrode separation.