Thermally Stable and Highly Active Polymer Electro-Optic Materials

Pacific Wave Industries proposes to systematically improve the thermal stability of our previously engineered electro-optic (EO) polymers. The proposed high mb chromophore-incorporated EO polymers are based upon chromophore monomers or dimers modified withmultiple bulky side groups that are functionalized with trifluorovinylethers. The bulky groups help increase the molecular weight to such a level that solutions of the resulting monomer or dimer can be directly spin-cast into optical quality films. Thetrifluorovinylethers (TFVEs) can undergo thermal cyclization reaction and therefore serve to crosslink the films at elevated temperatures. Our recently developed fabrication techniques will allow for rapid device implementations of the new materials in theform of Mach-Zehnder modulators with electrical bandwidths up to 60 GHz, low half-wave voltages, low optical losses, and good power handling capabilities. The utilization of these new materials in complex structures, performing single side band modulationand RF frequency phase shifting, are planned for the future stages of this effort.This Phase I project will increase the temperature stability of our chromophore-incorporated polymers to levels satisfying the requirements of telecommunication industry.This will allow us to develop commercial electro-optic modulators with ultra wide bandwidth exceeding that of any presently available on the market. Furthermore, because of the low cost and lower operating voltages, devices fabricated with the new polymerswill offer superior performance to Lithium Niobate technology in the important 40 Gbit application area.