Glass electro-optic polymer structure for light modulation and switching

A novel hybrid structure for optical modulation and switching is presented. It consists of a thin film of electro-optic polymer spin-coated on passive waveguide made by ion exchange on glass substrate. Two structures corresponding to weak guiding and strong guiding conditions are considered. Design issues and modulation performances are studied for the two structures. Low half-wave voltages less than 10 volts are expected for an interaction length of 1 cm provided the electro-optic coefficient of the nonlinear polymer is 10 pm/V.