Electro-optic polymer waveguide modulators with refractive index tapers leading to low coupling loss and a high confinement factor

A new design of a hybrid electro-optic polymer waveguide modulator is demonstrated that uses grayscale lithography to create refractive index tapers by photobleaching. It leads to a device with a half-wave voltage of 1.9 V, modulation efficiency of 15 dB and a fiber to lens insertion loss of 11.6 dB using 20 wt. % AJLS102.