500 GHz plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator enabling sub-THz microwave photonics
Abstract
Broadband electro-optic intensity modulators are essential to convert electrical signals to the optical domain. The growing interest in THz wireless applications demands modulators with frequency responses to the sub-THz range, high power handling and very low nonlinear distortions, simultaneously. However, a modulator with all those characteristics has not been demonstrated to date. Here we experimentally demonstrate that plasmonic modulators do not trade off any performance parameter, featuring - at the same time - a short length of 10s of micrometers, record-high flat frequency response beyond 500 GHz, high power handling and high linearity, and we use them to create a sub-THz radio-over-fiber analog optical link. These devices have the potential to become a new tool in the general field of microwave photonics, making the sub-THz range accessible to e.g. 5G wireless communications, antenna remoting, IoT, sensing, and more.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1901.00477,
title = {500 GHz plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator enabling sub-THz microwave photonics},
author = {Maurizio Burla and Claudia Hoessbacher and Wolfgang Heni and Christian Haffner and Yuriy Fedoryshyn and Dominik Werner and Tatsuhiko Watanabe and Hermann Massler and Delwin Elder and Larry Dalton and Juerg Leuthold},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1901.00477},
year = {2019}
}
Comments
15 pages, 9 figures (Main paper: pages 1-9, 4 figures; Supporting Information: pages 10-15, 5 figures)