Richard S. Lytel

Narrowband electrooptic tunable notch filter

We describe the theory of a narrowband electrooptic tunable filter based on a Fabry-Perot etalon with distributed Bragg reflectors. The filter can be in either bulk or waveguide form. The input to the filter must be prefiltered to the stop-band of the Bragg mirrors. Once this is accomplished, the etalon possesses a very narrow notch in the Bragg filter stop-band. The notch width is extremely narrow when the Bragg reflectance is high. The location of the notch in the Bragg stop-band is determined by the etalon cavity length and can be tuned by application of an electric field to the electrooptic material comprising the etalon cavity. Absorption in the cavity and Bragg reflectors is included in the theoretical model of the filter. The filter can be constructed from any one of several existing electrooptic organic polymer crystals, if the gratings are made either by partial polymerization of the monomer in crossed-UV beams or by corrugating the surface of the polymer. We show a theoretical example of a notch filter operating at a center wavelength of 1 microm that is 62.75 microm thick, with a notch width of under 1 A and a transmission of 35%. This type of filter should have applications in high-speed optical modulation and Q-switches for lasers.

Poled polyimides as thermally stable electro-optic polymer

Using polyimide as host in a guest-host electro-optic thin film a thermally stable poled electro- optic response is demonstrated at temperatures at 150 degree(s)C and 300 degree(s)C. A coplanar-electrode poling geometry is used so that the guest molecular alignment between the electrodes is coincident with the free volume of the host. Electric field poling during curing process including imidization (170 - 230 degree(s)C) and densification (340 - 380 degree(s)C) accounts for the highly thermally stable electro-optic response.

Advances in Organic Electro-Optic Devices

We report initial experiments on the fabrication of active and passiveintegrated optic device structures based on poled polymer electro-optic buried channel waveguides. The process of channel waveguide definition and fabrication through electric field poling is described and experimental results are presented. The fabrication, theoretical performance modeling and experimental evaluation of several integrated optic device structures, including phase modulators, directional couplers and Y-branch interferometers, are also reported.

Practical considerations for polymer photonic devices

Electro-optic (EO) poled polymer materials exhibit low dispersion and low dielectric constants. EO polymer materials have been modulated flat to 40 GHz and exhibit few fundamental limits for ultrafast modulation and switching. Channel waveguides and integrated optic circuits can be defined by the poling process itself, by photochemistry of the EO polymer, or by a variety of well understood micro-machining techniques. EO polymer materials have been used to fabricate high-speed Mach-Zehnder modulators, directional couplers, Fabry-Perot etalons, and even multi-tap devices. Practical issues remain to be solved before polymer photonic technology may be exploited in systems such as datacom and telecom. These include reliable, low cost fiber-attach and packaging, support circuitry and interfaces, and the scale-up to high volume production. This talk reviews requirements for practical exploitation and displays recent progress toward achieving reliable products.

Datacom applications of electro-optic polymer devices

Electro-optic polymer waveguide modulators may be used in parallel modulation arrays supplied by branching structures providing fanout from a CW laser for a variety of applications, including CATV and data communications. This paper highlights some of the benefits of using EO polymer modulators in arrays for point-to-point digital data communications.

Single-mode 1xN solid state optical switches: packaging and applications

We describe the applications, fabrication, and performance of thermo-optic polymer waveguide 1 X N switches.

External modulation using EO polymer arrays in digital systems

Electro-optic polymer waveguide modulators may be used in parallel external modulation arrays supplied by branching structures providing fanout from a cw laser for a variety of applications, including CATV and data communications. This paper highlights some of the benefits of using EO polymer modulators in arrays for point-to-point digital data communications.

Packaging of single-mode polymer waveguide devices

We describe the performance of our packaged integrated optic switches based upon single- mode polymer waveguides.

Large-scale integration of electro-optic polymer devices for MPP applications

Keywords: Photonic Interconnects; Polymer Electrooptics; Optical Backplanes; Parallel Optical Arrays; Integrated Optics