UTILITY POTENTIAL OF NONLINEAR-OPTICAL POLYMERS FOR OPTICAL TELECOMMUNICATION AND SWITCHING APPLICATIONS

This paper attempts to examine the utility potential of polymeric electro-optic devices for applications in optical telecommunication, switching and signal processing. A preliminary study reveals that there exists a great deal of potential in the polymeric devices for applications that require high bandwidth, low loss and integration possibility. Yet further investigations are needed for practical applications: improving thermal stabilities, increasing the electro-optic coefficient to decrease the half wave voltage below 2V, and reducing the optical loss at the wavelength of 1.55mum. It is shown that the modulation bandwidth of polymer electro-optic devices is limited by microwave power loss.