title: Electro-optic modulator with exceptional power-size performance enabled by transparent conducting electrodes.
abstract: An EO phase modulator having transparent conducting oxide electrodes and an inverted rib waveguide structure is demonstrated. This new modulator geometry employs an EO polymer having an in-device r33 = 60pm/V. The measured half-wave voltage Vpi of these devices ranges from 5.3V to 11.2V for 3.8 and 1.5 mm long devices, respectively. The lowest VpiL figure-of-merit corresponds to 0.6V-cm (7.2mW-cm(2) of power length product) in a dual-drive configuration. The trade-off between Vpi, insertion loss and modulation bandwidth is systematically analyzed. An optimized high-speed structure is proposed, with numerical simulation showing that this new structure and an in-device r33 = 150pm/V, can achieve Vpi = 0.5V in a 5mm long active length with dual drive operation. The insertion loss is targeted at 6dB, and a 3dB optical modulation bandwidth can reach > 40GHz.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, 2145 Sheridan Rd, Evanston, IL, 60208, USA.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Yi
authors.forename: Fang
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Ou
authors.forename: Boyang
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Yingyan
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Seng-Tiong
authors.initials: ST
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Yiliang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jun
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Tobin J
authors.initials: TJ
authors.lastname: Marks
authors.forename: Su
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.forename: Jingdong
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Alex K-Y
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Jen
authors.forename: Raluca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dinu
authors.forename: Dan
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Jin
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D004566:Electrodes; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation; D004867:Equipment Design; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055096:Optical Devices; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D017785:Photons; D011108:Polymers / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D011108:Polymers