An electro-optic polymer-cladded TiO_2 waveguide modulator

摘要

Organic electro-optic (EO) materials and their hybrid systems have received considerable attention for high-performance modulators. In this work, we demonstrate the design and fabrication of an EO modulator with a low half-wave voltage (V_π) and a RF modulation response up to at least 10 GHz. The polymer used in this work has a glass transition temperature of 172 ℃, which makes it stable even under high temperature RF sputtering. As a result, an EO polymer-cladded titanium dioxide (TiO_2) waveguide structure can be utilized to enlarge the confinement factor, and thus, enable a low V_π. The response of the modulator from 4 to 10 GHz has been measured, which shows a flat frequency response up to 10 GHz and a potential for the application in several tens GHz.