Mach-Zehnder Electro-optic Modulator Research Articles

Modeling and application of a bidirectional Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator with enhanced high-frequency modulation efficiency

We present a simple way to enhance bidirectional broadband modulation in a traveling wave Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator (EOM) by removing matched impedance and effecting a reflection of the microwave signal. A model was devised for determining the modulation efficiency (ME) in the presence of microwave reflection, without access to the physical parameters of the EOM. By using the model, the simulated MEs matched well with the measured ones, which verified the correctness of the model and demonstrated that the internal parameters of the modulator could be inferred from the model. Compared with the traditional unidirectional EOM, the measured ME of the bidirectional modulator for the optical signal that counter-propagates with the incident microwave signal was improved by 10 times at least. When the velocities of microwave and optical signals were matched, the MEs at the frequency higher than 3.3 GHz were further improved. Our model was also used to derive the optical interference signal utilizing bidirectional modulation. It was found that the signal intensity was enhanced significantly, and further improved after introducing the velocity match. This work can be expected to open up many microwave photonics applications where bidirectional optical modulation is utilized in novel sensing and metrology.

Modeling and experimental characterization of a compact Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator on the SOI

The Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator (MZM) plays a crucial role in photonics integration technology during signal transmission. We propose the design and fabrication of a silicon-based electro-optic modulator based on the M-Z structure and design a modulator using silicon as the waveguide core layer on a silicon dioxide substrate. The detailed design involves a 1×2 splitter, branch waveguides, modulating arm waveguides, and a 2×1 combiner. The MZM fabrication and characterization results reveal that the half-wave voltage of the silicon-based MZM is 2 V, with an optical loss of −2.464dB and a device core size of 450µm×2800µm. The experimental results indicate that the MZM with a low half-wave voltage, a low loss, and high integration has significant value. The proposed MZM exhibits considerable improvements, featuring a low half-wave voltage and a low loss, and this device may serve as a fundamental component in wearable large-scale photonic integrated circuits for weak ECG real-time detection.

Periodic spiking pulse formation in broadband nonlinear optoelectronic oscillator

An approach to generating periodic spiking pulses in a broadband opto-electronic oscillator (OEO) without external injection is proposed and demonstrated. Through biasing the electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) in the OEO cavity at its nonlinear working point, spiking pulses are excited by the self-generated chaos under the combined action of the loop filter response time and the nonlinear excitation effect. An interaction force is introduced between pulses. As a result, the pulse number in a single roundtrip duration and the temporal distribution of the generated spiking pulses can be tuned by adjusting the loop gain and the direct-current (DC) bias voltage of the MZM. Both numerical simulation and experiment are carried out to demonstrate the spiking pulse generation mechanism, where ultra-short spiking pulse trains with even and uneven temporal distribution are generated.

Bound-state-in-continuum guided modes in a multilayer electro-optically active photonic integrated circuit platform.

In many physical systems, the interaction with an open environment leads to energy dissipation and reduced coherence, making it challenging to control these systems effectively. In the context of wave phenomena, such lossy interactions can be specifically controlled to isolate the system, a condition known as a bound-state-in-continuum (BIC). Despite the recent advances in engineered BICs for photonic waveguiding, practical implementations are still largely polarization- and geometry-specific, and the underlying principles remain to be systematically explored. Here, we theoretically and experimentally study low loss BIC photonic waveguiding within a two-layer heterogeneous electro-optically active integrated photonic platform. We show that coupling to the slab wave continuum can be selectively suppressed for guided modes with different polarizations and spatial structure. We demonstrate a low-loss same-polarization quasi-BIC guided mode enabling a high extinction Mach-Zehnder electro-optic amplitude modulator within a single Si3N4 ridge waveguide integrated with an extended LiNbO3 slab layer. By elucidating the broad BIC waveguiding principles and demonstrating them in an industry-relevant photonic configuration, this work may inspire innovative approaches to photonic applications such as switching and filtering. The broader impact of this work extends beyond photonics, influencing research in other wave dynamics disciplines, including microwave and acoustics.

10 Hz Stable Mode-locked Er-Fiber Laser

Abstract: In this paper, a stable output at the reduction repetition rate from 80 MHz mode-locked Er-doped fiber laser (EDFL) was demonstrated by adjusting the operating point for external LiNbO3 Mach-Zehnder‎ electro-optic intensity modulator to suppress harmonic mode-locked pulses. More than 70% of the laser beam was launched into the external pigtail Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator using single mode fiber with collimating lens and fiber (ferrule connector) FC adapter. The optimum values of Mach-Zehnder modulator bias voltages V0 and Vπ (half wave voltage) which resulted in maximum and minimum laser output power to leave the modulator were found at 6.5 and 0.29 V, respectively. The best modulation was achieved for the RF modulating signal with an opening time of about 8 ns. For driving voltage equal to Vπ, a clean mode-locked pulse train was generated with a pulse shape and energy similar to the input pulse, albeit with a low repetition rate. The minimum repetition rate reached as low as 10 Hz, resulting in pulse energy and peak power of 0.32 nJ and 1.5 kW, respectively. Second-harmonic generation of the low repetition rate pulse train was also produced by using a PPLN crystal. This opens up the potential for using this laser in single photon detection experiments and as a seed laser for many applications. Keywords: Er-fiber laser, Passively mode-locked fiber laser, Nonlinear polarization rotation, Mach-Zehnder modulator, Fast electro-optic modulator. PACS: Fiber lasers, 42.55.Wd, Mode locking, 42.60.Fc.

FPGA-based pulsed laser with high modulation depth from Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator and its application

Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator as the essential component of high-speed modulation in the optical fiber communication and sensing system, its stability control of operating bias-point plays a key role in determining the transmission signal quality. Based on the output characteristic principle of Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, researches on its bias-point drifting for causing the reduction mechanism of modulation depth and extinction ratio are analyzed. Switching its internal state machine from FPGA is proposed to automatically adjust the bias voltage in real time realizing the operating bias-point control of Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, which is studied through the theoretical investigation. A pulsed laser with the temperature sensing system of fiber Bragg grating ring-down cavity based on FPGA is established experimentally to demonstrate its effectiveness. The experimental results show the modulation depth and the extinction ratio of pulsed laser are improved by 40.45% and 32.85 dB, respectively. Output characteristic curve of the sensing system is optimized, which includes the phenomenon of initial curve rise of ring-down signals and the distortion of ring-down waveform are eliminated. The good linearity, repeatability, stability and accuracy of sensing system are investigated at the continuous variation temperature from −30℃ to 30℃.

Neuromorphic regenerative memory optoelectronic oscillator.

Neuromorphic spiking information processing based on neuron-like excitable effect has achieved rapid development in recent years due to its advantages such as ultra-high operation speed, programming-free implementation and low power consumption. However, the current physical platforms lack building blocks like compilers, logic gates, and more importantly, data memory. These factors become the shackles to construct a full-physical layer neural network. In this paper, a neuromorphic regenerative memory scheme is proposed based on a time-delayed broadband nonlinear optoelectronic oscillator (OEO), which enables reshaping and regenerating on-off keying encoding sequences. Through biasing the dual-drive Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator in the OEO cavity near its minimum transmission point, the OEO can work in excitable regime, where localized states are maintained for robust nonlinear spiking response. Both simulation and experiment are carried out to demonstrate the proposed scheme, where the simulation results and the experimental results fit in with each other. The proposed OEO-based neuromorphic regenerative memory scheme exhibits long-term response ability for short-term excitation, which shows an enormous application potential for high-speed neuromorphic information buffering, optoelectronic interconnection and computing.

100 GHz bandwidth, 1 volt integrated electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulator at near-IR wavelengths

Integrated photonics at near-IR (NIR) wavelengths currently lacks high bandwidth and low-voltage modulators, which add electro-optic functionality to passive circuits. Here, integrated hybrid thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulators (MZM) are shown, using TFLN bonded to planarized silicon nitride waveguides. The design does not require TFLN etching or patterning. The push–pull MZM achieves a half-wave voltage length product (V π L) of 0.8 V.cm at 784 nm. MZM devices with 0.4 cm and 0.8 cm modulation length show a broadband electro-optic response with a 3 dB bandwidth beyond 100 GHz, with the latter showing a record bandwidth to half-wave voltage ratio of 100 GHz/V and a high extinction ratio exceeding 30 dB. Such fully integrated high-performance NIR electro-optic devices may benefit data communications, analog signal processing, test and measurement instrumentation, quantum information processing and other applications.

Integrated O- and C-band silicon-lithium niobate Mach-Zehnder modulators with 100 GHz bandwidth, low voltage, and low loss.

Broadband integrated thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) electro-optic modulators (EOM) are desirable for optical communications and signal processing in both the O-band (1310 nm) and C-band (1550 nm). To address these needs, we design and demonstrate Mach-Zehnder (MZ) EOM devices in a hybrid platform based on TFLN bonded to foundry-fabricated silicon photonic waveguides. Using a single silicon lithography step and a single bonding step, we realize MZ EOM devices which cover both wavelength ranges on the same chip. The EOM devices achieve 100 GHz EO bandwidth (referenced to 1 GHz) and about 2-3 V.cm figure-of-merit (V π L) with low on-chip optical loss in both the O-band and C-band.

Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulators chirping management in high speed data communication lightwave systems

Abstract This work demonstrates Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulators chirping management in high speed data communication lightwave systems. The link with applied voltage on the modulators arms is clarified. We have analyzed the chirp in MZ lithium niobate modulators output. The resulted signal passed on the channel that consists of the loop control that we used not to lose too much power because we use an amplifier after a period of fiber reach cable. The resulted signal distance depends on the number of loops multiplied by the fiber reach cable. The next step is to receive the signal by photodetector pin with a responsivity of 1 A/W. The signal after that passed on low pass Gaussian filter with a cut of bandwidth of 0.75 × Bit rate.

Thin-film lithium-niobate modulator with a combined passive bias and thermo-optic bias.

It is essential to bias a thin-film lithium-niobate Mach-Zehnder electro-optic (EO) modulator at the desired operation condition to ensure optimal performance of the modulator. While thermo-optic (TO) control can solve the problem of bias drift, it consumes significant electric power. In this paper, we propose a technique to largely reduce bias power consumption by combining passive bias and TO bias. In our design, waveguide sections with different widths are introduced in the two arms of the MZ modulator to produce a desired phase difference of π/2 rad (the desired operation condition), and local heating with electrode heaters placed on the waveguides is employed to provide compensation for any phase drift caused by fabrication errors and other effects. As the TO control only serves to compensate for small errors, the electric power required is low and the response is fast. To demonstrate our technique experimentally, we fabricate several modulators of the same design on the same chip. Our experimental modulators can operate up to ∼40 GHz with a half-wave voltage of ∼2.0 V over a wide optical bandwidth, and the performances are insensitive to ambient temperature variations. The TO bias powers required range from 1 mW to 15 mW, and the thermal rise and fall times are 47 µs and 14 µs, respectively. Our technique can facilitate the development of practical high-speed EO modulators on the lithium-niobate-on-insulator platform.

Driving system for Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulators in microwave photonics.

In order to obtain a modulation signal with high bandwidth and highly stable output power without distortion, an electro-optic modulator driving system with quick response to the input signal is designed in this paper. The system mainly includes three parts: power supply module, microwave signal generation module, and automatic gain control (AGC) module. The power supply module provides appropriate voltage and current for other two modules. The microwave signal generation module is used to generate microwave signals. The AGC module adopts the digital AGC control structure and the PID control principle to achieve stable control of the output power of the microwave signal. The hardware is developed, and the software algorithm is integrated into the driving system to verify the effectiveness and stability. The experimental results show that the bandwidth of the AGC module reaches 20 GHz. The proposed AGC module can effectively stabilize the output power of the microwave signal at 10 dBm with fluctuations less than ±1.5 dB, and its stability is improved by 74.95% compared to existing instrument. When the input power changes at 10 KHz, the system can still achieve stable control performance and has exhibited excellent dynamic response characteristics.

High-performance Mach–Zehnder modulator using tailored plasma dispersion effects in an ITO/graphene-based waveguide

A high-performance electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) with outstanding characteristics is proposed. The MZM is in a push-pull configuration that is constructed using an ITO/graphene-based silicon waveguide. A novel idea for engineering of the plasma dispersion effect in an ITO/graphene-based waveguide is proposed so that the modulation characteristics of the MZM are highly improved. Plasma dispersion effects of ITO and graphene layers are tailored in such a way that a large difference between real parts of guided mode effective index of the two arms is achieved while their corresponding imaginary parts are equal. As a result, a very low {{mathrm {V}}}_{pi }L_{pi } of 10 , hbox {V} upmu hbox {m} is achieved. To the best of our knowledge, this is one of the lowest {{mathrm {V}}}_{pi }L_{pi } reported for an electro-optic modulator. In addition, the proposed modulator exhibits a very high extinction ratio of more than 30 dB, low insertion loss of 2.8 dB and energy consumption of as low as 10 fJ/bit, which are all promising for optical communication and processing systems.

High-Performance Electro-Optical Mach–Zehnder Modulators in a Silicon Nitride–Lithium Niobate Thin-Film Hybrid Platform

We analyzed a Mach–Zehnder electro-optical modulator based on a silicon nitride strip–loaded waveguide on 0.5 μm thick x-cut lithium niobate thin film. The optical and radio frequency parameters for two different modulator structures (Type I: packaged with 2 μm thick SiO2 and Type II: unpackaged) were simulated, calculated, and optimized. The Optical parameters included the single-mode conditions, effective indices, the separation distance between the electrode edge and the Si3N4-strip-loaded edge, optical power distribution, bending loss, optical field distribution, and half-wave voltage. The radio frequency parameters included the characteristic impedance, attenuation constant, radio frequency effective index, and −3 dB modulation bandwidth. According to the numerical simulation and theoretical analysis, the half-wave voltage product and the −3 dB modulation bandwidth were, respectively, 2.85 V·cm and 0.4 THz for Type I modulator, and 2.33 V·cm and 1.26 THz for Type II modulator, with a device length of 3 mm.

A modular fabrication process for thin-film lithium niobate modulators with silicon photonics

We report advancements in the fabrication of electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulators made by bonding an unetched thin film of lithium niobate (LN) to a second chip with rib waveguides in another material, such as silicon. Devices were fabricated after storing bonded silicon-LN chips in a common laboratory environment for more than three years. The chips survived the full processing flow and yielded modulators with greater than 50 GHz 3 dB electro-optic bandwidth, and less than 3 V cm at 1550 nm and equivalent performance to freshly-bonded and processed chips. Furthermore, we demonstrate the co-integration of hybrid bonded thin-film LN modulators and silicon photonics based high quality-factor ring resonators and higher-order coupled microring optical filters. The silicon microring resonators are used for photon-pair generation at 1550 nm using spontaneous four-wave mixing. These results show the feasibility of a modular modulator fabrication procedure, where the planarization and bonding steps are performed for a batch of chips at one time and smaller sub-batches are customized by end users at a much later time according to their needs and convenience.

Research on Ultra-high-speed Mach-Zehnder Electro-optic Modulators for Long-distance Optical Transmission of 1 Terabit per Second

Research on Ultra-high-speed Mach-Zehnder Electro-optic Modulators for Long-distance Optical Transmission of 1 Terabit per Second

All-optical microwave feedback oscillator with atomic cell resonator

We report the demonstration of an all-optical self-sustained cell-based microwave feedback oscillator. In this scheme, a microwave resonance, optically induced in a buffer-gas filled vapor cell resonator through coherent population trapping (CPT), is detected by a fast photodiode, amplified, and used to drive back, through a frequency divider, a Mach–Zehnder electro-optic modulator in a sustaining loop configuration. The total gain and phase of the system was measured in an open-loop configuration with a network analyzer. In good agreement with values predicted by the Leeson effect, the CPT feedback oscillator demonstrates an absolute phase noise of −24 dB rad2/Hz at 1 Hz offset frequency, compatible with a fractional frequency stability of 8 × 10−12 at 1 s, and a phase noise floor of −112 dB rad2/Hz, limited by the low microwave power available at the photodiode output. The amplitude noise of the oscillator shows a comparable noise floor and, for offset frequencies lower than 200 Hz, a 1/f dependence, due to the presence of the frequency divider in the loop.

Multi-format microwave signal generation based on an optoelectronic oscillator

A novel approach to generating multi-format microwave signals directly from an optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Through applying different low-frequency electrical waveforms to the bias port of the electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator, the net gain in the OEO cavity is dynamically controlled to make the OEO work at different status. Hence, different microwave signals can be generated in the oscillation process. In the proof-of-concept experiment, a single-tone microwave signal at 4.005 GHz is generated by using a direct-current driving voltage. Microwave pulse trains centered at 4 GHz and with repetition rates of 390 kHz and 3.9 MHz are generated under fundamental and 10th-order harmonic mode locking, respectively, by using sinusoidal driving voltages. Besides, rectangular microwave waveforms centered at 4 GHz and with duty cycles of 25%, 50%, and 75% are generated under gain switching status by using rectangular driving voltages. The proposed method is also able to generate other types of microwave signals in a broad frequency range, which can find applications in a multi-functional microwave photonic system.

Research on Ultra-Fast Optical Vector Analysis Based on Microwave Photonic Frequency Sweeping

An ultra-fast and high-resolution optical vector analysis scheme has been proposed and experimentally demonstrated. In the scheme, a broadband optical frequency-sweeping signal is generated by injecting a linearly frequency-modulated signal into one radio-frequency (RF) port of a dual-drive Mach-Zehnder electro-optic modulator, which is used to achieve fast scanning of the frequency response characteristic of the device under test (DUT). A single-tone microwave signal is injected into the other RF port of the modulator to realize down-conversion of the frequency-sweeping signal. The down-converted signal is then digitized by an analog-to-digital converter, and is processed through Hilbert transform to extract the amplitude- and phase-frequency response of the DUT. In the proof-of-concept experiment, the amplitude- and phase-frequency response of the Brillouin gain in a section of non-zero dispersion shifted fiber with a length of 3 km is accurately measured, where the measurement time is only 20 μs, and the frequency resolution reaches 20 kHz.

A Parity-Time-Symmetric Optoelectronic Oscillator Based on Non-Reciprocal Electro-Optic Modulation

In this paper, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a parity-time- (PT-) symmetric optoelectronic oscillator (OEO) based on non-reciprocal electro-optic modulation for the generation of a microwave signal with a low phase noise. In the proposed OEO, two mutually coupled optoelectronic loops with one having a gain and the other a loss are implemented based on the copropagating and counterpropagating modulation in a traveling-wave electro-optic Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM), to achieve PT symmetry. Due to the non-reciprocity of the travelling-wave MZM, the modulation indices are different for the copropagating and counterpropagating light waves in relative to the applied microwave signal, which is then interpreted as different microwave round-trip gains for the mutually coupled optoelectronic loops. Once the gain/loss coefficient is greater than the coupling coefficient, the PT symmetry is broken, and single-mode oscillation is achieved. The proposed OEO is experimentally demonstrated. A 10-GHz microwave signal with a phase noise of −110 dBc/Hz at an offset frequency of 10 kHz and a sidemode suppression ratio of 42 dB is generated. The work provides a new solution to overcome the mode selection problem in a long-cavity OEO. Since a single physical loop is employed, the proposed PT-symmetric OEO has the simplest architecture as compared to any existing PT-symmetric OEOs.