Open AccessDemonstration of high-speed thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator optical modulators at the 2-µm wavelength
Author(s) -
Bingcheng Pan,
Jianping Hu,
Yishu Huang,
Lijia Song,
Jingyi Wang,
Pengxin Chen,
Zejie Yu,
Liu Liu,
Daoxin Dai
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.416908
Subject(s) - lithium niobate , materials science , optics , optical modulator , electro optic modulator , wavelength , optoelectronics , bandwidth (computing) , optical communication , wideband , telecommunications , physics , phase modulation , computer science , phase noise
Optical communication wavelength is being extended from the near-infrared band of 1.31/1.55 µm to the mid-infrared band of 2 µm or beyond for satisfying the increasing demands for high-capacity long-distance data transmissions. An efficient electro-optic (EO) modulator working at 2 µm is highly desired as one of the indispensable elements for optical systems. Lithium niobate (LiNbO 3 ) with a large second-order nonlinear coefficient is widely used in various EO modulators. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the first Mach-Zehnder EO modulator working at 2 µm based on the emerging thin-film LiNbO 3 platform. The demonstrated device exhibits a voltage-length product of 3.67 V·cm and a 3-dB-bandwidth of >22 GHz which is limited by the 18 GHz response bandwidth of the photodetector available in the lab. Open eye-diagrams of the 25 Gb/s on-off keying (OOK) signals modulated by the fabricated Mach-Zehnder EO modulator is also measured experimentally with a SNR of about 14 dB.