NANOSECOND RESPONSE POLYMER ELECTRO-OPTIC SWITCH WITH HIGH POLING EFFICIENCY AND GOOD LONG-TERM STABILITY

Abstract

In this paper, a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) electro-optic (EO) polymer switch with a guest–host material Disperse Red 19(DR19)/SU-8 has been designed and fabricated. The optical properties of the DR19/SU-8 were characterized in detail. By optimizing the poling temperature, the DR19/SU-8 material exhibits a high poling efficiency and a good long-term stability. The order parameter Φ is calculated as 0.65 and electro-optic coefficient γ33 is measured to be 11 pm/V. After about 1440 h, the γ33 remains stable at 7.4 pm/V. The characteristic parameters of the waveguide were carefully designed and fabrication process was strictly controlled. At 1550 nm, the insertion loss of the device is 11.2 dB. The rise time and fall time of the switch are 26.6 ns and 22.5 ns, respectively. Owing to the nanosecond response speed and good long-term stability, this switch exhibits potential for planar active lightwave circuit applications.