Broadband modulation of light by using an electro-optic polymer.
A major challenge to increasing bandwidth in optical telecommunications is to encode electronic signals onto a lightwave carrier by modulating the light up to very fast rates. Polymer electro-optic materials have the necessary properties to function in photonic devices beyond the 40-GHz bandwidth currently available. An appropriate choice of polymers is shown to effectively eliminate the factors contributing to an optical modulator's decay in the high-frequency response. The resulting device modulates light with a bandwidth of 150 to 200 GHz and produces detectable modulation signal at 1.6 THz. These rates are faster than anticipated bandwidth requirements for the foreseeable future.
Lee
Mark
M
Bell Laboratories-Lucent Technologies, 600 Mountain Avenue, Murray Hill, NJ 07974, USA. markl@lucent.com
Katz
Howard E
HE
Erben
Christoph
C
Gill
Douglas M
DM
Gopalan
Padma
P
Heber
Joerg D
JD
McGee
David J
DJ