Volume 15Issue 1
Jan. 2022
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LIU Hai-feng, GUO Hong-jie, TAN Man-qing, LI Zhi-yong. Research progress of lithium niobate thin-film modulators[J]. Chinese Optics, 2022, 15(1): 1-13. doi: 10.37188/CO.2021-0115
Citation: LIU Hai-feng, GUO Hong-jie, TAN Man-qing, LI Zhi-yong. Research progress of lithium niobate thin-film modulators[J].Chinese Optics, 2022, 15(1): 1-13.doi:10.37188/CO.2021-0115

Research progress of lithium niobate thin-film modulators

doi:10.37188/CO.2021-0115
Funds:Supported by National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2019YFB2203802); National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 61934007)
More Information
  • Corresponding author:mqtan@semi.ac.cn
  • Received Date:24 May 2021
  • Rev Recd Date:25 Jun 2021
  • Available Online:16 Oct 2021
  • Publish Date:19 Jan 2022
  • Electro-optic modulators based on lithium niobate (LiNbO 3, LN) thin-film platforms are advantageous for their small volume, high bandwidth and low half-wave voltage. They have important application prospects in the field of optical fiber communication and optical fiber sensing, and thus have became a heavily researched topic in recent years. In this paper, the research progress of the waveguide structures, coupling structures and electrode structures of LN thin-film modulators are reviewed in detail. The fabrication process of a LN thin-film waveguide is summarized, and the performances of different modulator structures are analyzed. Based on SOI and LNOI, a platform modulator is realized with V π L<2 V∙cm, a bilayer inversely tapered coupling scheme achieves a coupling loss <0.5 dB/facet , and a traveling wave electrode structure achieves a modulation bandwidth >100 GHz. Thin-film LN modulators are better than commercial LN modulators in most aspects. It can be predicted that in the near future, with the further improvement in waveguide technology, thin-film LN will become a popular scheme of LN modulators. Finally, the potential directions for the future of their research are proposed.

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