Light Modulation With Electro-Optic Polymer-Based Resonant Grating Waveguide Structures

A novel modulator design incorporating an E-O polymer into a resonant grating waveguide structure is presented. Using purely polymeric material we developed a resonant grating waveguide structure having low loss and high finesse, with approximately 2nm spectral line width at 1.55 mu m. An externally applied voltage modulates the refractive index of the E-O waveguide, thereby shifting the resonance wavelength and modulating the incident light at MHz rates. Such modulator operates in free space and does not involve waveguide patterning nor the need for facet conditioning and coupling common to operation in the Mach-Zehnder type configuration. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.