Optically heterodyned 25-GHz true-time-delay lines on thick LD-3 polymer-based planar waveguides

Abstract

Synthesis of the LD-3 electro-optic polymer has resulted in a highly reliable nonlinear organic material. Such a success has been impeded from further progress because the LD-3 films produced thus far are too thin (<0.5 µm) to form a waveguide. Further details of material synthesis have to be studied to solve this problem. We report the formation of thick LD-3 films ranging from 1.2 to 2.4 µm by introducing cyclopentanone as the new solvent in polymer synthesis. The formation of multimode planar waveguides on silicon with a waveguide loss of approximately 1.3 dB/cm at 1.3 µm is demonstrated. Preliminary studies aimed at forming true-time-delay lines are conducted by use of various waveguide lengths in conjunction with an optical heterodyne technique. Waveguide settings equivalent to different true-time-delay lines with a delay time of up to 0.27 ns and a base bandwidth of 25 GHz are demonstrated with a signal-to-noise ratio of 15 dB.

© 1997 Optical Society of America

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