Organic electro-optic polymer materials and organic-based hybrid electro-optic modulators

High performance electro-optic modulator,as the key device of integrated ultra-wideband optical systems,have be-come the focus of research.Meanwhile,the organic-based hybrid electro-optic modulators,which make full use of the advant-ages of organic electro-optic(OEO)materials(e.g.high electro-optic coefficient,fast response speed,high bandwidth,easy pro-cessing/integration and low cost)have attracted considerable attention.In this paper,we introduce a series of high-perform-ance OEO materials that exhibit good properties in electro-optic activity and thermal stability.In addition,the recent progress of organic-based hybrid electro-optic devices is reviewed,including photonic crystal-organic hybrid(PCOH),silicon-organic hy-brid(SOH)and plasmonic-organic hybrid(POH)modulators.A high-performance integrated optical platform based on OEO ma-terials is a promising solution for growing high speeds and low power consumption in compact sizes.

Polymer Electro-optic Modulator Linear Bias Using the Thermo-optic Effect

A quasi-rectangular waveguide polymer MacH^(-)Zehnder (M-Z) electro-optic (EO) modulator based on an organic/inorganic hybrid material with thermal bias control is fabricated and demonstrated.Linear bias for the modulator is obtained through thermo-optic effect.The optical output is adjusted by changing phase difference between the two arms of the M-Z interferometer.A power consumption of 16.1 m W for π phase change is observed owing to the application of silica cladding.This approach is proved to be effective to suppress direct current drift in polymer EO modulators.

Waveguide electro-optic modulators based on self-assembled material systems

Fabrication and characterization of electro-optic modulators based on the novel organic electro-optic materials composed of self-assembled superlattices (SAS) were presented, both wet-dipping self-assembly and vapor phase deposition approaches were discussed. Prototype waveguide electro-optic modulators were fabricated using SAS films integrated with low-loss polymeric materials functioning as partial guiding and cladding layers.Promising electro-optic thin film materials including DTPT and PEPCOOH grown from the vapor phase were used for fabrication and test of electro-optic prototype modulators. Finally,the EO coefficient of tens of pm/V was obtained,which can sufficiently support high-speed and small size EO modulators.

Recent Progress in Silicon Electro-optic Modulators for High Speed Applications

Silicon-based high-speed electro-optical modulator is the key component of silicon photonics for future communiction and interconnection systems. In this paper, introduced are the optical mudulation mechanisms in silicon, reviewed are some recent progresses in high-speed silicon modulators, and analyzed are advantages and shortages of the silicon modulators of different types.

Simulation design of thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with bimetallic layer electrodes

Thin-film lithium niobate electro-optical modulator will become the key device in the future optical communication,which has the advantages of high modulation rate,low half-wave voltage,large bandwidth,and easy integration compared with conventional bulk lithium niobate modulator.However,because the electrode gap of the lithium niobate film modulator is very narrow,when the microwave frequency gets higher,it leads to higher microwave loss,and the electro-optical performance of the modulator will be greatly reduced.Here,we propose a thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with a bimetallic layer electrode structure to achieve microwave loss less than 8 dB/cm in the range of 200 GHz,exhibiting a voltage-length product of 1.1 V·cm and a 3 dB electro-optic bandwidth greater than 160 GHz.High-speed data transmission test has been performed,showing good performance.

Wavelength injection locking actively Q-switched random fiber laser based on random phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating and electro-optic modulator

In this paper, an actively Q-switched wavelength injection locking random fiber laser(RFL) based on random phase-shifted fiber Bragg grating(RPS-FBG) is proposed, and the performance of the laser is verified by experiments. Within the reflection bandwidth range of RPS-FBG, spanning from 1 549.2 nm to 1 549.9 nm, different laser modes with stable central wavelength and peak power can be selectively chosen by varying the injected light wavelength. The power fluctuation within 1 h is less than 0.1 d Bm, and the central wavelength drift is less than 0.02 nm. When the pump power increases from 90 mW to 300 mW, the pulse width decreases from 3.2 μs to 1.5 μs, and the pulse repetition frequency is 20 kHz. The RFL can reach a stable locking state at the lowest pump power of 100 mW and the lowest injection power of 3 d Bm. When the wavelength is locked, the output pulse is a single pulse. On the contrary, the unlocked output pulse is multi-pulse. The laser has the characteristics of high wavelength tunability in the reflection range of RPS-FBG and it can be an ideal light source in the fields of laser imaging and pulse coding.

Monolithic thin film lithium niobate electro-optic modulator with over 110 GHz bandwidth

High-performance thin film lithium niobate(LN) electro-optic modulators with low cost are in demand. Based on photolithography and wet etching, we experimentally demonstrate a thin film LN Mach–Zehnder modulator with a 3 d B bandwidth exceeding 110 GHz, which shows the potential of boosting the throughput and reducing cost. The fabricated modulator also exhibits a comparable low half-wave voltage-length product of ~2.37 V · cm, a high extinction ratio of >23 d B, and the propagation loss of optical waveguides of ~0.2 d B/cm. Besides, six-level pulse amplitude modulation up to 250 Gb/s is successfully achieved.

The effect of conductor loss on half-wave voltage and modulation bandwidth of electro-optic modulators

In this paper, we theoretically deduce the expressions of half-wave voltage and 3-dB modulation bandwidth in which conductor loss is taken into account. The results suggest that it will affect the theoretical values of half-wave voltage and bandwidth as well as the optimized electrode's dimension whether considering the conductor loss or not. As an example, we present a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) type polymer waveguide amplitude modulator. The half-wave voltage increases by 1 V and the 3-dB bandwidth decreases by 30% when the conductor loss is taken into account. Besides, the effects of impedance mismatching and velocity mismatching between microwave and light wave on the half-wave voltage, and 3-dB bandwidth are discussed.

Design optimization of microwave properties for polymer electro-optic modulator using full vectorial finite element method

In this paper, a polymer electro-optic mod- ulator has been designed and optimized using the full vectorial finite element method. For this purpose, the effects of magnesium oxide （MgO） and down cladding thicknesses, distance between two ground electrodes, hot electrode and modulator widths modulator on the key modulator parameters, such as microwave effective index r/m, the characteristic impedance Zc and the microwave losses a are presented. After selecting optimal dimensions of polymer electro-optic modulator, frequency dependent aforementioned parameters and the half-wave voltage- length product （VπL） parameter of polymer electro-optic modulator are extracted and as a consequence, an optimized design is reported. Finally, the optical and electrical modulation responses of polymer electro-optic modulator are calculated. The optimized polymer electro- optic modulator exhibits 3-dB electrical bandwidth of 260 GHz and VπL about 2.8 V- cm in this frequency.

Structure Design of Polymer Electro-Optic Modulator with Ultra- Broadband

Using finite element method, lots of calculating focusing on polymer electro-optic modulators with ultra-broadband were done, a few structures were analyzed. Coplanar waveguide electrode system was advanced, a few real examples was given.

Low-power electro-optic phase modulator based on multilayer graphene/silicon nitride waveguide

Electro-optic modulator is a key component for on-chip optical signal processing.An electro-optic phase modulator based on multilayer graphene embedded in silicon nitride waveguide is demonstrated to fulfill low-power operation.Finite element method is adopted to investigate the interaction enhancement between the graphene flake and the optical mode.The impact of multilayer graphene on the performance of phase modulator is studied comprehensively.Simulation results show that the modulation efficiency improves with the increment of graphene layer number,as well as the modulation length.The 3-dB bandwidth of around 48 GHz is independent of graphene layer number and length.Compared to modulator with two-or four-layer graphene,the six-layer graphene/silicon nitride waveguide modulator can realizeπphase shift at a low-power consumption of 14 fJ/bit when the modulation length is 240μm.

Influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based on biaxial hyperbolic materials

Relative rotation between the emitter and receiver could effectively modulate the near-field radiative heat transfer(NFRHT)in anisotropic media.Due to the strong in-plane anisotropy,natural hyperbolic materials can be used to construct near-field radiative modulators with excellent modulation effects.However,in practical applications,natural hyperbolic materials need to be deposited on the substrate,and the influence of substrate on modulation effect has not been studied yet.In this work,we investigate the influence of substrate effect on near-field radiative modulator based onα-MoO_(3).The results show that compared to the situation without a substrate,the presence of both lossless and lossy substrate will reduce the modulation contrast(MC)for different film thicknesses.When the real or imaginary component of the substrate permittivity increases,the mismatch of hyperbolic phonon polaritons(HPPs)weakens,resulting in a reduction in MC.By reducing the real and imaginary components of substrate permittivity,the MC can be significantly improved,reaching 4.64 forε_(s)=3 at t=10 nm.This work indicates that choosing a substrate with a smaller permittivity helps to achieve a better modulation effect,and provides guidance for the application of natural hyperbolic materials in the near-field radiative modulator.

Exploring the modulatory role of bovine lactoferrin on the microbiome and the immune response in healthy and Shiga toxin‑producing E.coli challenged weaned piglets

Background Post-weaned piglets suffer from F18+Escherichia coli(E.coli)infections resulting in post-weaning diar-rhoea or oedema disease.Frequently used management strategies,including colistin and zinc oxide,have contrib-uted to the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance.Novel antimicrobials capable of directly interacting with pathogens and modulating the host immune responses are being investigated.Lactoferrin has shown promising results against porcine enterotoxigenic E.coli strains,both in vitro and in vivo.Results We investigated the influence of bovine lactoferrin(bLF)on the microbiome of healthy and infected weaned piglets.Additionally,we assessed whether bLF influenced the immune responses upon Shiga toxin-producing E.coli(STEC)infection.Therefore,2 in vivo trials were conducted:a microbiome trial and a challenge infection trial,using an F18+STEC strain.BLF did not affect theα-andβ-diversity.However,bLF groups showed a higher relative abundance(RA)for the Actinobacteria phylum and the Bifidobacterium genus in the ileal mucosa.When analysing the immune response upon infection,the STEC group exhibited a significant increase in F18-specific IgG serum levels,whereas this response was absent in the bLF group.Conclusion Taken together,the oral administration of bLF did not have a notable impact on theα-andβ-diversity of the gut microbiome in weaned piglets.Nevertheless,it did increase the RA of the Actinobacteria phylum and Bifi-dobacterium genus,which have previously been shown to play an important role in maintaining gut homeostasis.Furthermore,bLF administration during STEC infection resulted in the absence of F18-specific serum IgG responses.

A high-contrast imaging coronagraph for segmented-mirror large aperture telescopes using a spatial light modulator

The primary mirrors of current and future large telescopes always employ a segmented mirror configuration.The small but non-negligible gaps between neighboring segments cause additional diffraction,which restricts the performance of high-contrast coronagraph.To solve this problem,we propose a coronagraph system based on a single liquid crystal spatial light modulator(SLM).This spatial light modulator is used for amplitude apodization,and its feasibility and potential performance are demonstrated using a laboratory setup using the stochastic parallel gradient descent(SPGD)algorithm to control the spatial light modulator,which is based on point spread function(PSF)sensing and evaluation and optimized for maximum contrast in the discovery working area as a merit function.The system delivers a contrast in the order of 10−6,and shows excellent potential to be used in current and future large aperture telescopes,both on the ground and in space.

Ultra-compact lithium niobate microcavity electro-optic modulator beyond 110 GHz

A lithium-niobate-on-insulator(LNOI)electro-optic(EO)modulator based on a 2×2 FP-cavity was designed and realized with an ultra-compact footprint and an ultra-high bandwidth.A comprehensive analysis on the present LNOI FP-cavity modulator was conducted to reveal the dependence of modulation bandwidth and modulation effi-ciency on the cavity Q-factor and the operation wavelength detuning to the resonance.In particular,the 2×2 FP cavity was designed to achieve an optimal Q factor by reducing the reflectivity of reflectors and the cavity length,thus reducing the photon lifetime in the cavity.An ultra-short effective cavity length of only∼50μm was achieved for the designed LNOI FP-cavity modulator,with itsfootprint being as compact as∼4×500μm 2.It was demonstrated theoretically that the modulation bandwidth could be improved significantly to be over 200 GHz by utilizing the peaking enhancement effect.The fabricated device exhibited an excess loss of∼1 dB and an extinction ratio of∼20 dB in experiments,while the measured 3-dB bandwidth was higher than 110 GHz(beyond the maximal range of the facilities in experiments).Up till now,to our best knowledge,this has been the first LNOI microcavity modulator with a bandwidth higher than 110 GHz.Finally,high-quality eye-diagrams of 100 Gbps on-off keying(OOK)and 140 Gbps 4-pulse amplitude modulation(PAM4)signals were demonstrated experimentally,and the energy consumption for the OOK signals was as low as 4.5 fJ/bit.

LD-pumped high repetition rate Q-switched Nd:YVO_4 laser by using La_3Ga_5SiO_(14) single crystal electro-optic modulator

A diode-end-pumped electro-optic （EO） Q-switched Nd：YVO4 laser operating at repetition rate of 10 kpps （pulses per second） was reported. A block of La3Ga5SiO14 （LGS） single crystal was used as a Q-switch and the driver was a metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor （MOS-FET） pulser of high repetition rate and high voltage. At continuous wave （CW） operation, the slope efficiency of the laser was 46%, and maximum optical-to-optical efficiency was 38.5%. Using an output coupler with transmission of 70%, a 10-kpps Q-switched pulse train with 0.4-mJ monopulse energy and 8.2-ns pulse width was achieved, the optical conversion efficiency was around 15%, and the beam quality M^2 factor was less than 1.2.

Ultra-low V_(pp)and high-modulation-depth InP-based electro-optic microring modulator

A modulator is an essential building block in the integrated photonics,connecting the electrical with optical signals.The microring modulator gains much attention because of the small footprint,low drive voltage and high extinction ratio.An ultra-low V_(pp)and high-modulation-depth indium phosphide-based racetrack microring modulator is demonstrated in this paper.The proposed device mainly comprises one racetrack microring,incorporating a semiconductor amplifier,and coupling with a bus waveguide through a multimode interference coupler.Traveling wave electrodes are employed to supply bidirectional bias ports,terminating with a 50-Ω impedance.The on/off extinction ratio of the microring reaches 43.3 dB due to the delicately tuning of the gain.An 11 mV V_(pp),a maximum 42.5 dB modulation depth and a 6.6 GHz bandwidth are realized,respectively.This proposed microring modulator could enrich the functionalities and designability of the fundamental integrated devices.

Silicon electro-optic modulator with high-permittivity gate dielectric layer

A high-permittivity （high-k） material is applied as the gate dielectric layer in a silicon metal-oxide- semiconductor （MOS） capacitor to form a special electro-optic （EO） modulator. Both induced charge density and modulation efficiency in the proposed modulator are improved due to the special structure design and the application of the high-k material. The device has an ultra-compact dimension of 691 μm in length.

Measurement of Frequency Shift Characteristics Based on LiNbO_3 Waveguide Electro-Optic Intensity Modulator

High-speed and wide-band LiNbO3 waveguide electro-optic intensity modulator has drawn great attention in the field of optical fiber communication and sensor. This paper reports the research results on the measurement of frequency shift characteristics of Mach-Zehnder electro-optic intensity modulator. Two measurement methods of frequency shift characteristics for high and low frequency modulations are studied in theory and experiment and demonstrate different results. The realization of a multi-wavelength optical source based on Mach-Zehnder electro-optic intensity modulator has been introduced. The technique to reach the maximum intensity for interesting shift frequency, particularly for heterodyne detection of Brillouin distributed optical fiber sensing, has been given.

Compact electro-optic modulator on lithium niobate

Fast electro-optic modulators with an ultracompact footprint and low power consumption are always highly desired for optical interconnects.Here we propose and demonstrate a high-performance lithium niobate electro-optic modulator based on a new 2×2 Fabry–Perot cavity.In this structure,the input and reflected beams are separated by introducing asymmetric multimode-waveguide gratings,enabling TE_(0)−TE_(1)mode conversion.The measured results indicate that the fabricated modulator features a low excess loss of∼0.9dB,a high extinction ratio of∼21dB,a compact footprint of∼2120μm^(2),and high modulation speeds of 40 Gbps OOK and 80 Gbps PAM4 signals.The demonstrated modulator is promising for high-speed data transmission and signal processing.