ABSTRACT
Organic electro-optic (OEO) materials and devices, particularly polymers, have been investigated and developed for a number of years. Compared to conventional crystalline materials, their advantages are the ability of chemists to molecularly engineer organic materials to achieve very high electrooptic (EO) coešcients and the ability of the device engineers to use spin cast fabrication technology and to therefore potentially integrate the EO devices with other opto-electronic and electronic devices and circuits. In the case of high-speed optical modulators, polymer materials have additional advantages in that their optical index of refraction is reasonably close to the microwave index of refraction, therefore, velocity matching is inherently possible, and that modulators with relatively long traveling electrodes can be made which allows one to simultaneously achieve low-drive voltage and broad bandwidth.
