MOSCOW, April 17 Employees of the Ioffe Institute of Physics and Technology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg) have developed an integrated optical modulator — a key device for building optical information and telecommunication systems, according to its parameters corresponding to the world level and promising in terms of import substitution of foreign components in domestic photonics and optoelectronics, the Russian Ministry of Education and Science reported.
In recent decades, according to a number of characteristics, information and telecommunication systems based on classical electronics and photonics are approaching the limit of their capabilities. Therefore, scientific laboratories around the world are researching and developing devices based on alternative physical principles that would allow bringing information and telecommunication systems to a new, «quantum» level.
The most promising area of research in this area has become photonics, which explores the methods of generating, transmitting and processing signals using electromagnetic waves in the optical range (light is a special case of such waves) and has proven itself in fiber optic communication lines. In recent years, the field of application of photonics as a means of communication has expanded significantly and includes systems for generating, transmitting and processing ultra-wideband microwave-modulated optical signals (radio photonics), as well as quantum, that is, based on the quantum nature of light, data transmission and processing systems ( quantum photonics).
«We have developed an integrated optical ultra-wideband modulator — a device for converting electrical signals into optical ones and controlling the characteristics of these signals. Such modulators are key elements for building optical information and telecommunication systems. They are used on fiber optic communication lines,» said the head of the laboratory Quantum Electronics FTI Alexander Shamrai.
The developed modulator is based on an integrated optical chip made of a single crystal of lithium niobate. This substance has unique optical properties that manifest themselves in the most important effects that can be used to form and control optical signals, including quantum ones, which makes it one of the most promising materials for creating optoelectronic devices.
In terms of its parameters, the development surpasses Russian counterparts and corresponds to the level of the world's leading manufacturers of modulators, therefore it is promising for import substitution of foreign components in domestic photonics and optoelectronics.
Now the PTI continues to work on improving the technology of modulators based on lithium niobate. Recent developments are focused on the use of hybrid thin-film lithium niobate substrates with a thickness of a thousandth of a millimeter. This will potentially make it possible to reduce the length of the modulator to a few millimeters, reduce the level of control voltages and expand the modulation bandwidth to 100 GHz and higher, which is expected to bring optical information systems to a fundamentally new level of development.