Organic electro-optic glasses for WDM applications

Abstract

This communication primarily deals with utilizing organic electro-optic (OEO) materials for the fabrication of active wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) transmitter/receiver systems and reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs), including the fabrication of hybrid OEO/silicon photonic devices. Fabrication is carried out by a variety of techniques including soft and nanoimprint lithography. The production of conformal and flexible ring microresonator devices is also discussed. The fabrication of passive devices is also briefly reviewed. Critical to the realization of improved performance for devices fabricated from OEO materials has been the improvement of electro-optic activity to values of 300 pm/V (or greater) at telecommunication wavelengths. This improvement in materials has been realized exploiting a theoretically-inspired (quantum and statistical mechanics) paradigm for the design of chromophores with dramatically improved molecular first hyperpolarizability and that exhibit intermolecular electrostatic interactions that promote self-assembly, under the influence of an electric poling field, into noncentrosymmetric macroscopic lattices. New design paradigms have also been developed for improving the glass transition of these materials, which is critical for thermal and photochemical stability and for optimizing processing protocols such as nanoimprint lithography. Ring microresonator devices discussed in this communication were initially fabricated using chromophore guest/polymer host materials characterized by electro-optic coefficients on the order of 50 pm/V (at telecommunication wavelengths). Voltage-controlled optical tuning of the pass band of these ring microresonators was experimental determined to lie in the range 1-10 GHz/V or all-organic and for OEO/silicon photonic devices. With new materials, values approaching 50 GHz/V should be possible. Values as high as 300 GHz/V may ultimately be achievable.

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