Electrically poled vapor-deposited organic glasses for integrated electro-optics

Abstract

We introduce electrically poled small molecule assemblies that can serve as the active electro-optic material in nano-scale guided-wave circuits such as those of the silicon photonics platform. These monolithic organic materials can be vacuum-deposited to homogeneously fill nanometer-size integrated-optics structures, and electrically poled at higher temperatures to impart an orientational non-centrosymmetric order that remains stable at room temperature. An initial demonstration using the DDMEBT molecule and corona poling delivered a material with the required high optical quality, an effective glass transition temperature of the order of ∼80°C, and an electro-optic coefficient of 20 pm/V.