Design and fabrication of segmented, slotted waveguides for electro-optic modulation

Recently, slotted waveguides have been used in conjunction with second order nonlinear optical polymers to provide a platform for electro-optic modulation at telecommunication frequencies. A challenge with these devices is the need to provide high-frequency electrical driving signals to the slots. The silicon resistivity must be high to reduce optical loss, and as a result electrical performance can be severely limited. We have designed and fabricated a class of waveguide that achieves quasicontinuous electrical contact with subwavelength segmentations and has low optical losses of 4 dB/cm, allowing both millimeter-wave and optical fields to be concentrated in the same area.