Electro-optic electric field sensor and method of fabrication

A method for producing an electro-optic electric field sensor, the method compromising the steps of:

• placing and bonding an electro-optic material layer on top of a low dielectric constant substrate;
• forming a thin film of the electro-optic material layer on top of the low dielectric constant substrate;
• depositing and patterning metallic electrode layers on the remaining electro-optic material and the low dielectric constant substrate to accommodate poling that alternates ferroelectric domains of the electro-optic electric field sensor whenever necessary for a Mach-Zehnder-type sensor structure;
• poling to reverse a direction of spontaneous polarization of the remaining electro-optic material in selected regions, whenever reversing the direction of spontaneous polarization in the selected regions is desired;
• etching the metallic electrode layers to achieve a resulting structure with no metallic parts;
• utilizing lithography and etching to define a ridge waveguide structure;
• encapsulating the ridge waveguide structure in a top cladding layer;
• and
• aligning and attaching fiber optic cables to the ridge waveguide structure to constitute the electro-optic electric field sensor.