Tailored nanostructures and thin-film-processing for temperature stable organic silicon-hybrid-modulators

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Commercial optical transmission systems achieve data rates of 100 Gb/s on a single wave length. Future systems in communications are targeting for more than 1 Tb/s to meet the worldwide needs of increasing data rates in communications. In literature and in the appli-cants’ own preliminary work, the combination of silicon photonics with organic electro-optical materials offers promising results, e.g. with electro-optical bandwidths better than 100 GHz. In this proposal, the properties of nanostructured modulators and electro-optical active organic films should be investigated and correlated using the mentioned organic silicon-hybrid-modulator concept. The strongly interdisciplinary project combines the expertise of synthesis and film processing (Ludwigs, IPOC) with the expertise of modulator design and measure-ment technology (Berroth, INT). The investigation and fabrication of tailored electro-optical active films with enhanced stability for the application in the field of integrated photonics are main issues. A temperature-stable modulator should be investigated and realized with a fiber-to-fiber loss smaller than 4 dB, achieving bandwidths larger than 100 GHz and extinction ratios of more than 20 dB. The implementation of dual-mode interferometers, plasmonic waveguides and the process optimization of the chromophore alignment with the help of a special annealing-method using solvent vapor will be evaluated. Besides the synthesis of novel chromphores including acceptor-groups with high electron-withdrawing properties, the improvement of the temperature properties with the help of in-situ cross-linking reactions is scheduled. Due to the cooperation of the involved institutes, the investigation, fabrication and optimization can be done in Stuttgart.