1. 500 GHz plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator enabling sub-THz microwave photonics
- Author
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Burla, Maurizio, Hoessbacher, Claudia, Heni, Wolfgang, Haffner, Christian, Fedoryshyn, Yuriy, Werner, Dominik, Watanabe, Tatsuhiko, Massler, Hermann, Elder, Delwin, Dalton, Larry, and Leuthold, Juerg
- Subjects
Physics - Applied Physics ,Physics - Optics - Abstract
Broadband electro-optic intensity modulators are essential to convert electrical signals to the optical domain. The growing interest in THz wireless applications demands modulators with frequency responses to the sub-THz range, high power handling and very low nonlinear distortions, simultaneously. However, a modulator with all those characteristics has not been demonstrated to date. Here we experimentally demonstrate that plasmonic modulators do not trade off any performance parameter, featuring - at the same time - a short length of 10s of micrometers, record-high flat frequency response beyond 500 GHz, high power handling and high linearity, and we use them to create a sub-THz radio-over-fiber analog optical link. These devices have the potential to become a new tool in the general field of microwave photonics, making the sub-THz range accessible to e.g. 5G wireless communications, antenna remoting, IoT, sensing, and more., Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures (Main paper: pages 1-9, 4 figures; Supporting Information: pages 10-15, 5 figures)
- Published
- 2018