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Electro-Optic Materials and Devices for Integrated Photonics

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Abstract

It has long been appreciated that the fundamental response time of an organic electro-optic (OEO) material is the phase relaxation time of the π-electron system, which is a few tens of femtoseconds. Thus, OEO device bandwidths will typically be defined by the electrical components (electrodes and connectors) of the devices. Researchers at Lucent have shown that Mach Zehnder modulators exhibiting 3 dB bandwidths of 200 GHz and operation to 1.6 THz can be fabricated from OEO materials [1]. For difference frequency applications such as terahertz signal generation and detection, device bandwidths will be tens of THz. A second motivation for using organic electro-optic materials is the possibility of large (> 100 pm/V) electro-optic coefficients and thus small (< 1 volt) drive voltage requirements [2,3]. This second characteristic is not so trivially achieved. However, theory [4] has recently provided a new design paradigm for preparing large numbers of new materials with remarkably improved electro-optic activity. At GOMAC 2003, we reported the realization of EO coefficients on the order of 100-120 pm/V (at telecommunication wavelengths) [5]. Here we report values of 180-220 pm/V. It should be kept in mind that, while improving electro-optic activity, auxiliary properties (such as optical loss, processability, thermal stability, photochemical stability, and compatibility with cladding materials) must be maintained or improved. A third advantage of organic electro-optic materials that is becoming ever more appreciated is their exceptional processability and compatibility with other materials [6-27]. Thin films are easily prepared on a wide variety of substrates and complex (waveguide, cascaded prism, and microresonator [6-27]) device structures are readily fabricated including in three-dimensional versions and conformal and flexible versions.

© 2004 Optical Society of America

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