Abstract

In order to be useful in practical nonlinear optical(NLO) devices such as high speed optical switches and modulators, several key properties of electrooptic(EO) polymers must be optimized: the polymer's electrooptic response must be sufficiently large, the response must be stable at all temperatures that the polymer will experience in processing and in operation and the attenuation of light in the polymer by scattering and by absorption must be low. For the specific applications of on-chip and chip-to-chip active optical interconnects, the thermal stability requirements are particularly severe. During the processes of microprocessor die attachment and hermetic packaging, the EO polymer will experience temperatures of >300°C for several minutes[1]. We have investigated the potential and limitations of electrooptic polymers under these severe thermal conditions, proceeding from the identification of NLO chromophores with high intrinsic molecular hyperpolarizabilities[2], incorporation into thermally stable polymers[3][4], and fabrication into electrooptic switches and devices[5].

© 1995 Optical Society of America