Proposal for an athermal chip-scale modulator
Abstract
Approved for Public ReleaseThe focus of this proposal is the development of temperature insensitive and highly linear electro-opticmodulator. Our objective is to remove the factors hindering the performance of on-chip modulators today, namely: A. strong dependence of current photonic structures on temperature and B. sensitivity to nm-scale geometry variations: We propose the design and testing of a self-compensating athermal photonic structures that incorporate external tuning, independent of temperature. The device is composed of a Mach Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and two ring resonators. While in traditional setups, the coupling between a ring resonator and a waveguide is fixed and determined by the physical distance between them, in our proposed approach, it is defined by thephase difference accumulated through an interferometric structure. We propose to tune the multiple parameters in the system and compensate for fabrication variation in order to achieve optimal temperature performance and ultra high linearity.The proposed structure will be realized in LiNBO thin films. The high index contrast of the film will be leveraged for realizing the self-compensating athermal structure. The non-linearity of the film will be leveraged for tuning and therefore compensating for fabrication-induced geometrical variations.The expected performance of the device is orders of magnitude higher than traditional modulators. The expected effective thermo-optic coefficient is expected to be equal to 10-6 K-1, approximately 3 orders of magnitude smaller than standard modulators. The device will also be designed with exceptionally high linearity beyond 125dB. This high performance is expected to open the door for high performance RF systems and photonic links.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Jan 24, 2024
- Source ID
- N000142412072
Entities
People
- Michal Lipson
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York
- United States Navy