Performance evaluation of waveguide phase modulators for coherent systems at 1.3 and 1.5 µm

This article describes the fabrication and performance evaluation of
X
-cut and
Z
-cut Ti:LiNbO
3
traveling wave waveguide phase modulators designed for coherent systems applications at 1.3 and 1.5 μm. Details of device fabrication and measurements of phase shift as a function of optical wavelength, input polarization, modulation voltage, and modulation frequency are reported. Phase modulator performance in a 40-Mbit/s self-heterodyne coherent DPSK experiment is also discussed.