Patent ID: 8442361

Claim:
An optical modulator of the Mach-Zehnder type, comprising: a substrate comprising lithium niobate; a buffer layer disposed proximate the substrate; a first waveguide arm disposed proximate to the buffer layer, the first waveguide arm having a first width and a first length; a second waveguide arm disposed proximate to the buffer layer, the second waveguide arm having a second width and a second length; a first hot electrode disposed proximate to the first waveguide arm, the first hot electrode having a third width and a third length; and a second hot electrode disposed proximate to the second waveguide arm, the second hot electrode having a fourth width and a fourth length, wherein there is a difference in value between at least one of a pair of dimensions selected from the group of: the first and second widths, the first and second lengths, the third and fourth widths, and the third and fourth lengths, wherein the difference in value of the at least one pair of dimensions is selected to produce a chirp parameter of the optical modulator of at least a predetermined value, and wherein the first and second waveguide arms are under a differential drive and are configured to produce an output signal with a ratio of a third (3rd) order distortion term to fundamental given by: [ ( a 3 24 ) / ( a - a 3 8 ) ] · [ 1 ( 1 + α 2 / 8 ) ⁢ ( 1 + α 2 / 12 ) 4 ] where a = π ⁡ ( V 1 + V 2 ) V π , where V 1 represents an amplitude of an RF signal applied to the first hot electrode, where V 2 represents an amplitude of an RF signal applied to the second hot electrode in equal amplitude to V 1 but 180 degrees out of phase, where V π represents a bias voltage difference between a peak and a null of a transfer function curve associated with the optical modulator, and where α represents the chirp parameter of the optical modulator.