Research Of Polymer MZI Planar Waveguide Optical Switches

Optical switch and switch array play an important role in optical fiber communication. With the developing of the optical network, it is important to design and fabricate optical switches with low-power consumption, high performance, compact structure, easy integration, and low cost. In this thesis, the polymeric MachZehnder interferometer(MZI) planar waveguide optical switches were studied. By utilizing the advantages of the polymer material in thermal-optic(TO) and electro-optic(EO) devices and the easy-to-fabrication process and low-cost, the MZI type of TO and EO By utilizing the advantages of the polymer material in thermal-optic(TO) and electro-optic(EO) devices and the easy-to-fabrication process and low-cost, the MZI type of TO and EO switches by using the thermo-optic and electro-optic polymer materials, because of the excellent characteristics of the thermo-optic and electro-optic polymer switches, as well as low cost, simple preparation technology. By utilizing the advantages of the polymer material in thermal-optic(TO) and electro-optic(EO) devices and the easy-to-fabrication process and low-cost, the MZI type of TO and EO switches based on polymer material were fabrication and tested.Firstly, the polymer MZI TO switch was fabricated by using the polymethyl methacrylate and epoxypropyl methacrylate copolymer(P(MMA-GMA)) and the commercial Norland73(NOA73) material. The NOA73 material has an high TO coefficient, which can effectively reduce the power consumption of the device. At the same time, the selected under-cladding material Si O2 has an high thermal conductivity, which can improve the response speed of the device. Under 1550 nm operating wavelength, the testing results present that the extinction ratio of the TO switch is about 20.2 d B, the driving power is only 9.1 m W, and the rise time and fall time are 174 and 292 μs, respectively.Secondly, the guest-host EO material Disperse Red 1/ bisphenol A polycarbonate(DR1/PC) was synthetized. The MZI EO switch with inverted rib waveguide was fabricated by using DR1 / PC as the core layer. The concentration of the chromophore was optimized, and the maximum EO coefficient of the material is 12.8 pm/V in the case of avoiding the crystallization of the chromophores. the testing results present that the rise time and fall time of the EO switch are 33 ns and 24 ns, respectively.Finally, the polymeric MZI EO switch with the buried electrode structure was designed and fabricated. The guest-host EO material DR1 / PMMA was used as the waveguide core layer, and the modulating electrodes are placed on the both sides of the modulating arm. Compared with the traditional polymer MZI EO switch with microstrip line(MSL) electrodes, this type of switch with the buried electrode structure can enhance the poling and modulation efficiency effectively. After contact poling, the insertion loss of the device is 12.7 d B, and the rise time and fall time are 50 and 54 ns, respectively.