Patent ID: 6795597
Filing Date: 2004-09-21
Classification: G02F

Abstract:
An electrooptic waveguide for an optical signal, said optical signal including both a horizontally oriented component TE and a vertically oriented component TM, said waveguide comprising a plurality of control electrodes, an optical waveguide core, and a cladding optically coupled to said optical waveguide core, wherein:at least one of said core and said cladding comprises an electrooptic material poled along a poling contour; said control electrodes lie in a common edge plane; said control electrodes lying in said common edge plane define an asymmetric configuration and are positioned to generate a contoured electric field across said poled electrooptic material; said poled electrooptic material defines an array of local TM indices of refraction nTM corresponding to the indices of refraction for said vertically oriented component TM of said optical signal in said poled electrooptic material; said poled electrooptic material defines an array of local TE indices of refraction nTE corresponding to the indices of refraction for said horizontally oriented component TE of said optical signal in said poled electrooptic material; said local TM indices nTM and said local TE indices nTE are each a function of a first electrooptic coefficient rPP for light parallel to a local component of said contoured electric field and a second electrooptic coefficient rIP for light perpendicular to a local component of said contoured electric field; a difference between said first and second electrooptic coefficients rPP and rIP defines an optical birefringence of said poled electrooptic material; said local TM indices nTM collectively define a TM mode index of said waveguide; said local TE indices nTE collectively define a TE mode index of said waveguide; and said respective orientations of said electric field and said poling contour are configured to compensate for said optical birefringence of said poled electrooptic material such that said TM mode index of said waveguide is substantially equal to said TE mode index of said waveguide.