Sub-1 Volt and high-bandwidth visible to near-infrared electro-optic modulators
Abstract
Integrated electro-optic (EO) modulators are fundamental photonics components with utility in domains ranging from digital communications to quantum information processing. At telecommunication wavelengths, thin-film lithium niobate modulators exhibit state-of-the-art performance in voltage-length product (VπL), optical loss, and EO bandwidth. However, applications in optical imaging, optogenetics, and quantum science generally require devices operating in the visible-to-near-infrared (VNIR) wavelength range. Here, we realize VNIR amplitude and phase modulators featuringVπL’s of sub-1 V ⋅ cm, low optical loss, and high bandwidth EO response. Our Mach-Zehnder modulators exhibit aVπLas low as 0.55 V ⋅ cm at 738 nm, on-chip optical loss of ~0.7 dB/cm, and EO bandwidths in excess of 35 GHz. Furthermore, we highlight the opportunities these high-performance modulators offer by demonstrating integrated EO frequency combs operating at VNIR wavelengths, with over 50 lines and tunable spacing, and frequency shifting of pulsed light beyond its intrinsic bandwidth (up to 7x Fourier limit) by an EO shearing method.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Mar 27, 2023
- Source ID
- 10.1038/s41467-023-36870-w
Entities
People
- Amirhassan Shams-Ansari
- Daniel Rimoli Assumpcao
- Di Zhu
- Dylan Renaud
- Graham Joe
- Marko Loncar
- Neil Sinclair
- Yaowen Hu
Organizations
- ARPA-E
- Army Research Office
- Canadian Network for Research and Innovation in Machining Technology, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- National Science Foundation