RF and mm-Wave Photonics at Sandia National Laboratories

Journal Article · Thu Jul 08 00:00:00 EDT 1999 · Proceedings of SPIE, vol 3795 Terahertz and Gigahertz Photonics

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1117/12.370190· OSTI ID:8800

Vawter, G A; Sullivan, C

RF and mm-wave photonic devices and circuits have been developed at Sandia National Laboratories for applications ranging from RF optical data links to optical generation of mm-wave frequencies. This talk will explore recent high-speed photonics technology developments at Sandia including: (1) A monolithic optical integrated circuit for all-optical generation of mm-waves. Using integrated mode-locked diode lasers, amplifiers, and detectors, frequencies between 30 GHz and 90 GHz are generated by a single monolithic (Al,Ga)As optical circuit less than 2mm in its largest dimension. (2) Development of polarization-maintaining, low-insertion-loss, low v-pi, Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) modulators with DC-to-potentially-K-band modulation bandwidth. New low-loss polarization-maintaining waveguide designs using binary alloys have been shown to reduce polarization crosstalk in undoped (Al,Ga)As waveguides, yielding high extinction ratio (>40dB) and low on-chip loss (<6dB) in Mach-Zehnder interferometers. RF drive voltage is reduced through use of 45rnrn-active length devices with modulator sensitivity, v-pi, less than 3V.

• Research Organization: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-NM), Albuquerque, NM (United States); Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: US Department of Energy (US)
• DOE Contract Number: AC04-94AL85000
• OSTI ID: 8800
• Report Number(s): SAND99-1746J; TRN: AH200117%%163
• Journal Information: Proceedings of SPIE, vol 3795 Terahertz and Gigahertz Photonics, Other Information: Submitted to Proceedings of SPIE, vol 3795 Terahertz and Gigahertz Photonics; PBD: 8 Jul 1999
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

42 ENGINEERING
AMPLIFIERS
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
LASERS
MACH-ZEHNDER INTERFEROMETER
MODULATION
POLARIZATION
SANDIA NATIONAL LABORATORIES
WAVEGUIDES
ALUMINIUM ARSENIDES
GALLIUM ARSENIDES
TERAHERTZ AND GIGAHERTZ PHOTONIC COMPONENTS
INTEGRATED OPTICS
DIODE LASER
MODE-LOCKING
OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE
ALGAAS
MM-WAVE
OPTOELECTRONIC INTEGRATED CIRCUIT
OEIC
OPTICAL MODULATOR