Affiliation:
1. School of Engineering, University of Dayton, Dayton, OH 45469, USA
Abstract
In this study, a traveling wave Mach-Zehnder intensity modulator (TW-MZM) was designed and optimized for six different electro-optical (EO) crystals: lithium niobate (LNB), potassium niobate (KNB), lithium titanate (LTO), beta barium borate (BBO), cadmium telluride (CdTe), and indium phosphide (InP). The performance of each EO crystal, including optical and radio frequency (RF) loss, applied voltage, and modulation bandwidth, was estimated and compared. The results suggest that, in theory, KNB, LTO, BBO, and CdTe have the potential to outperform LNB. However, it should be noted that the loss associated with KNB and LTO is comparable to that of LNB. The findings demonstrated that BBO and CdTe exhibit a modulation bandwidth exceeding 100 GHz and demonstrate the lowest loss among the considered crystals based on the assumed geometry.
Funder
Ohio Federal Research Network