Optical phase modulator with sinusoidal PN junction
AssigneeCommissariat A L'energie Atomique Et Aux Energies Alternatives
InventorsKarim Hassan, Salim Boutami, Thomas Anfray
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Abstract
The object of the invention is a phase modulator including a modulation guide intended to guide die propagation of a light flow, said guide comprising a PN junction extending mainly along the main axis of propagation according to an oscillating continuous function. Advantageously, the oscillating continuous function is defined in such a way that the PN junction covers at least 50% of the light flow between the input and the output of the modulation guide. According to one possibility, the continuous function is sinusoidal. The object of the invention is also a switch and an intensity modulator each comprising a phase modulator.
Claims20
A phase modulator for a light flow comprising:
- an input guide and at least one multimode modulation guide having an input optically coupled with an output of the input guide, an output and a main axis (y) of propagation along which a light flow is intended to pass through the at least one multimode modulation guide, the at least one multimode modulation guide further comprising:
- a P-doped zone and a N-doped zone designated in such a way as to define a PN junction generating a space charge region,
- a device configured to vary a voltage V applied between the N-doped and P-doped zones in such a way as to vary a phase of the light flow intended to propagate in the at least one multimode modulation guide,
- wherein the input guide is configured to excite various propagation modes in the at least one multimode modulation guide and in that the PN junction extends mainly along the main axis (y) of propagation, following an oscillating continuous function forming oscillations each defining a crest and in which the crests of two successive oscillations are separated by a distance PjPN.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.