Optimizing low half-wave voltage electro-optic polymer modulator for optical waveguide sensor

Abstract

Electro-optic (EO) modulator is used commonly in optical communication systems. Extensive research has being carried out to optimize the device by improving its design and making use of novel waveguide materials. For bio-sensing applications, optimizing the device to be able to operate in low frequency and low input voltage (half-wave voltage) are substantial. This paper discusses the ability of a selection of EO modulator materials and waveguide designs to increase the modulator's sensitivity by enhancing the value of the EO coefficient and reduce the half-wave voltage needed to modulate the input signal. EO phase modulator with a proper polymer material will produce better results compared to LiNbO3 in terms of length extension and low insertion loss. Furthermore, we show the performance study of a EO polymer phase modulator compared with the LiNbO3 waveguide to gain lower length extension as well low insertion loss. Those parameters are essential for bio-sensing applications like as biomedical tools to sense the response of human body. As well as these parameters are important to design an EO phase modulator that is feasible for measuring bio-potential signal of a human body in biomedical applications.