Graphene-Incorporated Soft Capacitors for Mechanically Adjustable Electro-Optic Modulators

In addition to ultrahigh capacity and speed in data management, future communication networks require enhanced performance via system reconfigurability under limited resources. Extremely high-speed operation renders optical data managing devices as excellent candidates to hybridize with current electronic devices; however, they still need tunability for system reconfiguration in an integrated scheme. We demonstrate an efficient electro-optic (EO) modulator that is mechanically tunable on a multiple optical waveguide system that functioned with a soft capacitor structure incorporating graphene and poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA). The flexible capacitor that generates optical signals by temporal light absorption depending on electrical signals can be mechanically detached and reattached from and onto a rigid surface of the waveguide. It provides either the on or off state of the modulating operation, and enables switching of the working waveguides, following the reconfigured data routes. Quality-controlled graphene mainly provides the EO operation, and PMMA plays an important role as both the flexible dielectric layer in the capacitor and the passivation layer for graphene protection. The modulation effects of the manually prepared graphene-PMMA capacitor mechanically adjusted onto a side-polished optical fiber (D-shaped fiber) are investigated in terms of the extinction ratio (ER) of the transmitting light and the operational bandwidth. We successfully display an ER of the modulator up to 19.8 dB with a voltage control ranging from -50 to 50 V. Its stable operation is verified with a modulation speed up to 2.5 MHz.