Abstract
We have investigated an optical signal processor using electro-optic
polymer waveguides operating at a wavelength of 1.55 $\mu$m. Due to recent developments, many useful optical devices have
become available such as optical filters, modulators, switches, and
multiplexers. It will be useful to have a single optical device, which is
reconfigurable to implement all of these functions. We call such a device an
“optical signal processor,” which will play a similar
role to digital signal processors in electrical circuits. We realize such an
optical device in a planar lightwave circuit. Since the planar lightwave
circuits are based on the multiple interference of coherent light and can be
integrated with significant complexity, they have been implemented for
various purposes of optical processing such as optical filters. However,
their guiding waveguides are mostly passive, and the only viable mechanism
to reconfigure their functions is thermal effects, which is slow and cannot
be used for high-speed applications such as optical modulators or optical
packet switches. On the other hand, electro-optic polymer has a very high
electro-optic coefficient and a good velocity match between electrical and
optical signals, thus, permitting the creation of high-speed optical devices
with high efficiency. Therefore, we have implemented a planar lightwave
circuit using the electro-optic polymer waveguides. As a result, the
structure is complex enough to generate arbitrary functions and fast enough
to obtain high data rates. Using the optical signal processor, we
investigate interesting applications including arbitrary waveform
generators.
© 2009 IEEE
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