Abstract

Electro-optic modulators belong to the basic photonic components. Different schemes are used, where one of the fastest is the modulation of the optical phase via the elctro-optic effect based on the instantaneous response of a quadratic nonlinearity. For high modulation frequencies a velocity matched travelling wave structure (see Fig.1) is required to ensure a high efficiency of the interaction. Unfortunately both the optical and the electrical pulse are subject to dispersive effects, which become a significant problem, if one enters the picosecond domain. If a soliton is formed as a bound state of all interacting waves any spreading will be prevented and a stable propagation is obtained. Besides an improved switching characteristic the formation of solitary waves allows for the creation of rather exotic structures composed of electrical and optical waves. The nature of the interaction is based on two effects. Every optical pulse propagating through a quadratically nonlinear material will create a quasi-dc field via optical rectification. The latter one acts back on the light via the electro-optic effect.

© 2000 IEEE