Abstract
An electro-optic (EO) modulator using a TiO2 slot hybrid waveguide has been designed and fabricated. Optical mode calculations revealed that the mode was primarily confined within the slots when using a double-slot configuration, thus achieving a high EO activity experimentally. The TiO2 slots also acted as an important barrier to induce an enhanced DC field during the poling of the EO polymer and the driving of the EO modulator. The hybrid phase modulator exhibited a driving voltage (Vπ) of 1.6 V at 1550 nm, which can be further reduced to 0.8 V in a 1 cm-long push-pull Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. The modulator demonstrated a low propagation loss of 5 dB/cm and a relatively high end-fire coupling efficiency.
Highlights
An electro-optic (EO) modulator using a TiO2 slot hybrid waveguide has been designed and fabricated
The hybrid phase modulator exhibited a driving voltage (Vp) of 1.6 V at 1550 nm, which can be further reduced to 0.8 V in a 1 cm-long push-pull Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure
The high refractive index ridges are constituted of three strip-lines each with a cross-section of 350 3 200 nm[2]
Summary
An electro-optic (EO) modulator using a TiO2 slot hybrid waveguide has been designed and fabricated. Some properties should be further considered for the widespread utilization of the SOH modulators These include a propagation loss of about 20–35 dB/cm[6,9], a relatively low in-device poling efficiency (30–50%) when using silicon strip-lines as electrodes[6,7,8], and the requirement of an elaborate photonic structure such as a photonic crystal for the EO magnification[10]. Since the effective refractive index of the EO polymer/TiO2 slot is ,1.69, direct coupling of the light from a silica fiber to the waveguide facet is possible without any special coupler This is a significant practical improvement towards a direct fiber-to-device connection, while the loss can be further reduced by the attachment of taper couplers
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