Photonic processing with polylithic integrated optical devices

Recent developments in nonlinear optical polymer materials and devices combined with epitaxial liftoff(ELO) and grafting of semiconductor materials are leading to dramatic new possibilities in devices for photonic signal processing. For example, the development of new device architectures is leading to electro-optic modulators that have halfwave voltages of approximately 1V. Applications include very large bandwidth (>100 GHz) electro-optic modulators and high speed (<1 ns) switches for programmable optical delay lines for use in phased array systems. Also, with the increase in operating frequency and angular scan resolution, the delay length accuracy can reach magnitudes of micrometers for millimeter wave frequencies. With micro fabrication methods, integrated delay line/switch networks can achieve superior delay performance with a single integrated optic chip that is compact, light weight, and has low optical insertion loss. The use of ELO allows electronic device driver circuits to be integrated with the polymer chip to provide further miniaturization. Also, ELO methods can be used to fabricate very high speed metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) photodetectors for optical signal detection and monitoring. Here ELO methods can find applications in the fabrication of multispectral detectors and focal plane arrays. Yet other applications include very high speed analog-to-digital converters.