A polarization independent GaAs-AlGaAs electrooptic modulator

Two designs for polarization independent GaAs-AlGaAs interferometric electrooptic modulators are described. One design uses the linear electrooptic effect to couple degenerate TE/TM eigenmodes of a single-mode waveguide. In the other design the eigenmodes need only be near degenerate. The design using the coupling between near degenerate TE/TM modes utilizes a novel biasing scheme. A novel polarization independent GaAs-AlGaAs interferometric optical modulator based on this design has been fabricated and characterized at 1.3 /spl mu/m. This modulator is fabricated as a traveling wave modulator incorporating 50 /spl Omega/, phase velocity matched, low microwave loss electrodes for maximum electrical bandwidth.

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