<title>Microwave and optical properties of integrated electro-optic devices</title>

Abstract

A numerical analysis of microwave and optical properties of a polymer-based travelling-wave integrated electro-optic modulator is presented. We propose a new structure with a microwave buffer layer on top of the driving electrode. This buffer layer is added in order to obtain phase velocity matching between the optical field and the microwave modulation field. Employing the Effective Index Method and the 2D Beam Propagation Method the optical properties is investigated and the optical modulation index and the driving voltage is determined. Employing the Spectral Domain Approach we investigate the microwave properties of the new structure in a configuration with a travelling-wave electrode. It is shown that the two characteristics: the microwave mode index and the characteristic impedance, can be varied independently for the proposed structure. From the optical and microwave properties the active characteristics of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on the waveguide structure is investigated. We show that with no restrictions on the electrical power consumption, the optical modulation bandwidth can be higher than 100 GHz. This bandwidth will be reduced to 34 GHz, if a restriction on the electrical power from the signal generator is imposed.