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High-performance coherent optical modulators based on thin-film lithium niobate platform.
Mengyue Xu1, Mingbo He1, Hongguang Zhang2,3
1State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies and School of Electronics and Information Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, 510006, Guangzhou, China.
Nature Communications
|August 9, 2020
Summary
Integrated thin-film lithium niobate modulators achieve high performance for optical networks. These devices enable faster, more energy-efficient, and cost-effective communication by simultaneously meeting key performance requirements.
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Optical Communications
- Materials Science
- Integrated Optics
Background:
- Coherent transmission technology advances optical fiber capacity towards the Shannon limit.
- In-phase/quadrature (IQ) electro-optic modulators are crucial for coherent transmission, encoding data on light's amplitude and phase.
- Traditional IQ modulators face trade-offs between low loss, low drive voltage, high bandwidth, low chirp, and compact size.
Purpose of the Study:
- To demonstrate integrated thin-film lithium niobate IQ modulators that simultaneously meet critical performance requirements.
- To overcome the limitations of conventional lithium niobate modulators in terms of performance trade-offs.
- To enable next-generation high-speed and energy-efficient optical communication networks.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of integrated thin-film lithium niobate IQ modulators.
- Characterization of device performance including half-wave voltage, bandwidth, optical loss, and chirp.
- Testing modulator capabilities at high data rates.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated integrated thin-film lithium niobate IQ modulators achieving simultaneous low loss, low drive voltage, high bandwidth, and low chirp.
- Achieved significant improvements in overall performance compared to traditional lithium niobate modulators.
- Supported modulation data rates up to 320 Gbit/s.
Conclusions:
- The developed thin-film lithium niobate IQ modulators offer a superior solution for coherent optical communication.
- These devices represent a significant advancement towards high-speed, energy-efficient, and cost-effective communication networks.
- The findings pave the way for future innovations in optical networking technology.
