Integrated acousto-optic and magneto-optic Bragg cell modulators and their applications

Abstract

Significant advances have been made in both integrated acousto-optic (AO) and magneto-optic (MO) Bragg cell modulators in recent years. Presented are similarities in the basic interaction geometry and the characteristics associated with AO and MO Bragg diffraction and a comparison of the resulting AO and MO Bragg cell modulators in terms of the substrate material, center carrier frequency, bandwidth and their electronic tunability, modulation and switching speed, diffraction effi- ciency, fabrication and integration technologies, and applications. While the technology toward realization of monolithic integrated AO device modules in indium phosphide (InP)-based waveguide substrate is con- siderably ahead of its MO counterpart in yittrium iron garnet/gadolinium garnet (YIG/GGG)-based waveguide substrate, the basic MO Bragg cell modulators have demonstrated a number of unique and important ad- vantages over their AO counterparts. Further research and development toward ultimate realization of integrated AO and MO device modules is also discussed. © 1999 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers. (S0091-3286(99)00907-1) Subject terms: integrated acousto-optic Bragg cell modulators; integrated magneto-optic Bragg cell modulators; acousto-optic Bragg diffraction; magneto- optic Bragg diffraction; integrated optics; surface acoustic waves; magnetostatic waves; light beam scanning and switching; rf signal processing.