A Polymeric electro-optic phase modulator for broadband data transmission

Abstract

Polymeric traveling-wave phase modulators have been fabricated to assess the applicability of organic devices as the external modulating elements in coherent optical communication systems. The organic nonlinear optical material in our device was a PMMA-DR1 pendant side-chain polymer. The electrode geometry, used to drive the 1 cm long active region, consisted of a microstrip electrode on top of a poled single transverse mode channel waveguide made by photobleaching at a visible wavelength. This modulator, for which a 3 dB bandwidth in excess of 1 GHz has been demonstrated, was used to transmit a color television signal in a simulated communication system operating at 1.32 μm.