Scale up of EO polymers and their utilization in novel nano-imprinted sub-wavelength waveguide-based Modulators and Arrays

ABSTRACT: The Phase II technical objectives follow directly from the Phase I effort, where all tasks necessary for RF photonic receiver fabrication were demonstrated. The Phase II effort will pursue two major objectives: 1) further development of SEO100 EO polymer based chips, packaged devices and arrays in collaboration with University of Dayton (antenna designs), taking advantage of multiphoton microscopy to ensure ultra-efficient poling, and rib waveguide development to increase the antenna field/optical field overlap; 2) development of RF photonic receiver chips based on new Soluxra materials, including the exploration of device designs incorporating new low refractive index polymers to reduce insertion loss by enabling better coupling to optical fiber, the use of multiphoton microscopy technique to assist in ultra-efficient coplanar poling optimization of new Solxura materials with EO coefficients of 200pm/V, and downselection among EO materials, device designs, and fabrication processes to target the design and fabrication of the best possible RF photonic receiver. These objectives are all aimed at improving device performance as well as providing for the development of receiver arrays, which are required for improved resolution and sensitivity. BENEFIT: For military application, it is often desirable to simultaneously be able to collect electronic signals, perform communications, transmit/receive radar signals, and provide imaging all on a single platform. For this reason, multi-functional apertures, wherein all of these functions are performed through a single radiating aperture, are receiving great interest, but performing such functions through a traditional wideband RF system remains challenging. The new RF-photonic receiver chips developed under this program can be used to develop RF-photonic receiver systems with very large bandwidths. On the commercial side the recent explosive development of data center networking has created a strong interest in the data center networking community in optical solutions, if they can be made cost effective. The proposed EO modulator array technology has the potential to be high bandwidth and low cost, precisely what is desired by the data center networking community.