Temperature stable electro-optic polymer modulator using ultra-thin silicon waveguide

Abstract

We demonstrate the broadband electro-optical (EO) polymer modulator in the hybrid silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The waveguide consists of the 50 nm-thick silicon core with the EO polymer cladding. The fabrication of the hybrid waveguide can be totally carried out by using the conventional photolithography technique. The recorded half-wave voltage (Vπ) of the modulator was 0.9 V at 1550 nm. The traveling-wave electrode was applied to the modulator to test the frequency response up to 40 GHz. The modulator showed the excellent temperature stability at 85° for longer than 2000 hours.