RF and millimeter-wave photonics at Sandia National Laboratories

Abstract

RF and mm-wave photonic devices and circuits have been developed at Sandia National Laboratories for applications ranging from RF optical data links to optical generation of mm-wave frequencies. This talk will explore recent high- speed photonics technology developments at Sandia including: (1) A monolithic optical integrated circuit for all-optical generation of mm-waves. Using integrated mode-locked diode lasers, amplifiers, and detectors, frequencies between 30 GHz and 90 GHz are generated by a single monolithic (Al,Ga)As optical circuit less than 2 mm in its largest dimension. (2) Development of polarization-maintaining, low- insertion-loss, low v-pi, Mach-Zehnder interferometer modulators with DC-to-potentially-K-band modulation bandwidth. New low-loss polarization-maintaining waveguide designs using binary alloys have been shown to reduce polarization crosstalk in undoped (Al,Ga)As waveguides, yielding high extinction ratio (> 40 dB) and low on-chip loss (< 6 dB) in Mach-Zehnder interferometers. RF drive voltage is reduced through use of 45 mm-active length devices with modulator sensitivity, v-pi, less than 3 V.