US 5,396,363 AGranted

Integrated Electrooptic modulator and process for the production thereof

AssigneeCommissariat a l'Energie Atomique

InventorSerge Valette

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Abstract

Integrated electrooptic modulator and process for the production thereof. This modulator comprises a substrate (2), a guide structure having a guiding layer (14) defining a microguide (16) for the propagation of beams, interposed between the lower and upper layers (12, 18) having indices below that of the guiding layer, a cavity (20) made in the upper layer, an active material such as an active, solid, organic polymer (26), whose index can be electrically modified and which fills the cavity and serves as an optical guide, a confinement layer (28) covering the polymer and the guide structure, the indices of the upper layer and the confinement layer being below that of the polymer, two electrodes placed on either side of the polymer, an electrode (6) being positioned between the lower layer and the substrate and the other electrode (30) is located on the confinement layer.

Claims17

Dependent claims

An electrooptic modulator integrated on a substrate, comprising:

a guide structure supported by the substrate, including:
a lower layer;
an upper layer;
a guiding layer formed between the lower layer and the upper layer and having a refractive index greater than a refractive index of the lower layer and greater than a refractive index of the upper layer, the guiding layer forming a light-beam microguide in which light beams are confined to propagate in a predetermined direction of propagation;
a cavity formed within the upper layer and extending for only part of a length of the guide structure in the direction of propagation;
an active layer of light-transmitting active solid material deposited within the cavity, the active solid material exhibiting a refractive index that changes in response to an applied electrical signal;
a confinement layer covering the active material and the guide structure and having a refractive index lower than the refractive index of the active material;
and
a lower electrode separated from the active layer by the lower layer and an upper electrode separated from the active layer by the confinement layer, the electrical signal being applied between the lower electrode and the upper electrode.

6 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.