Study On Poled Polymer Waveguide And Electro-Optic Switch

Today, as the rapid development of optical communication technology, more and more electro-optic switches are demanded in communication. Currently high-speed Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (DWDM) optical communication network technology has took a great part in high-speed communication. In order to fit the high requirements of communication, new types of optoelectronic devices are required to proceed. More and more attention focuses on the high-speed electro-optical switches which are a key component in optical communication system.Polymer waveguide devices are studied all over the world with its merits that inorganic materials and traditional semiconductor materials do not have. Organic polymer has a low dielectric constant, high electro-optic coefficient, low loss, simple process, and low cost. So it is the best choice of material of higher-speed electro-optical device.The main work of this thesis focuses on the poled polymer waveguide and electro-optic switch, which is summarized as follows:The first part analyses the importance and value of electro-optical switch which is one of the key components of optical switches widely used in the optical communication technology.Second part focuses on theory the Mach-Zehnder type optical switch. The working principle and application of the various types of optical switching are referred in this part.Third, two types of electro-optic polymer materials were synthesized and characterized and its properties were optimized. According to the understanding of sol-gel technology organic / inorganic hybrid DR1/SiO2/TiO2 optic materials were synthesized. Details of the fabrication process of this material are the main comment of this part. Then two types of waveguide are presented utilizing these two electro-optic materials. A strip loaded optical waveguides, such as M-Z, 1×8 branches, 1×5 branches, Y branches, 3×3MMI, etc, were designed and fabricated respectively using of organic/inorganic hybrid materials, and their optical properties are tested through the measurement instrument. And a rectangular structure waveguide and polymer electro-optic switch were designed and fabricated with cross-linked DR1/SU-8 material. In the process, spin-coating, photolithography, vacuum deposition, etching, and other basic semiconductor planar process, combined with high-temperature corona poling technique are applied. Electrode is the final step of the process of electro-optic switch the principles and the fabrication process of which are introduced in the thesis.Finally, we choose a sample to test, and analysis the test results in the detail. The electro-optical switch test system is set up including light source, observation and data processing systems in the laboratory. In the test, we apply the electrode and waveguide with a DC bias and the square wave signal respectively. The best result in the thesis is the largest response frequency electro-optic switch with 10MHz in which the curve wave of signal response in the oscilloscope still is very clear, and the switching time of the optical switch is about 10 nanoseconds.