Nonlinear optic polymer based integrated opto-electronic modulators/switches

A new scheme for a nonlinear optical (NLO) polymer opto-electronic (OE) modulator/switch is presented that renders the potential to realize a device interaction length that is an order of magnitude shorter than conventional NLO polymer OE devices operating at TTL voltage levels. It utilizes available NLO polymer materials for the core layer and conductive polymer materials for the cladding layers in order to realize an effective 1 mu m separation between the electrodes. Using current NLO polymer materials with electro-optic (EO) coefficients of 20 pm/V, it is feasible to demonstrate < 2 mm interaction length OE devices operating at 5 volts. These lengths could lead to insertion within multichip modules (MCM's). A 1 mu m gap between electrodes also makes it possible to perform in-situ poling.