High refractive index polycarbonate as host polymer for electro-optic devices

ORGN 545

Baoquan Chen, Bchen@lumera.com, Diyun Huang, Dan Jin, Hui Chen, Lixin Zheng, Anna Barklund, Guomin Yu, Eric Miller, Merly Moolayil, Bing Li, and Raluca Dinu. Lumera Corporation, 19910 North Creek Parkway, Suite 100, Bothell, WA 98011
Abstract: A polycarbonate with high refractive index (n) and glass transition temperature (Tg) was synthesized from newly developed biphenol monomer. The optic and electric properties were characterized in single film with and without chromophore added. Finally, electro-optic modulators based the newly developed and commercial polycarbonates were fabricated and tested. Due to the high refractive index of the core with the new polycarbonate, thinner cladding was possible for waveguide formation without jeopardizing insertion loss of waveguide due to very close metal electrode to waveguide core. This work shows a direction to improving driving voltage of EO modulator other than improving EO activity of nonlinear optical chromophore as we usually we do.