Development and characterization of thermally stable electro-optic polymers and devices (Presentation Recording)

Abstract

Electro-optic (EO) polymers are key materials for next generation optical communications not only in wide area network but also in local area and storage area network because EO polymer modulator can be operated at fast speed more than 100 GHz with low energy consumption and can be miniaturized in combination with silicon photonics. In practical applications, thermal stability is one of the important issues to be considered for developing EO polymers. Since EO activity of the polymer is proportional to dipole orientation factor of the EO moieties, electric field assisted poling around glass transition temperature (Tg) of the polymer is necessary. However, the poled order of the molecules relaxes gradually at finite temperature, and then EO activity decreases after long period of time. We have successfully developed thermally stable EO polymers that have high-Tg up to 180 °C. They show excellent thermal stability with the Telcordia thermal test. Thermal stability is also characterized by thermally stimulated depolarization current (TSDC) measurement. Analyzing the TSDC, we can estimate the activation energy and relaxation time of polarization at any temperature. We will discuss thermal stability of the high-Tg EO polymers and devices.