DESIRABILITY OF ELECTROOPTIC MATERIALS FOR GUIDED-WAVE OPTICS

An illustrative, device-systems-level desirability optimization analysis is performed for electrooptic materials that are candidates for use in high-speed guided-wave optical devices. Ferroelectric materials with high and low transition temperatures, cubic crystals, organic crystals, and alloy semiconductors are considered. The simple bulk (lumped-type) guided-wave phase modulator is taken as the initial screening device. Performance measures such as electrical power supply constraints and the device's maximum operating speed are analyzed as a function of system variables that include material properties and electrode architectures. A desirability analysis is presented as a composite mathematical function that describes two or more independent performance measures in term of all relevant system variables. This function is displayed graphically to identify those sets of system variables that jointly optimize the performance measures of greatest interest.