A silicon/organic hybrid modulator integrating photonic crystal ͑PC͒ waveguide, 75 nm slot, and electro-optic ͑EO͒ polymer is experimentally demonstrated. Slow light in PC waveguide and strong field confinement in slot waveguide enable ultraefficient EO modulation with a record-low V ϫ L of 0.56 V mm and an in-device effective r 33 of 132 pm/V. This result makes it the most efficient EO polymer modulator demonstrated to date. The modulated signal shows strong wavelength dependence and peak enhancement of 23 dB near the band edge of defect mode, which confirms the signature of the slow light effect.

We experimentally demonstrate efficient optical coupling into a slow light photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) that is independent of the group velocity of the guided mode. With a group index taper to match the group velocity between a strip waveguide and a PCW, the optical coupling efficiency is nearly constant throughout the spectrum of the defect-mode, including the slow light region near the band edge. Compared to strip-PCW butt-coupling without a group index taper, our measurement results show a 20 dB enhancement in coupling efficiency with 5 dB less Fabry–Perot fluctuations. The measurements show excellent agreement with two-dimensional finite-difference time domain simulations.

We design a high dynamic range electric field sensor based on domain inverted electro-optic (E-O) polymer Y-fed directional coupler for electromagnetic wave detection. This electrode-less, all optical, wideband electrical field sensor is fabricated using standard processing for E-O polymer photonic devices. Experimental results demonstrate effective detection of electric field from 16.7V/m to 750KV/m at a frequency of 1GHz, and spurious free measurement range of 70dB.

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In this paper, we present the design and experimental demonstration of a high dynamic range electric field sensor based on electro-optic (EO) polymer directional coupler waveguides that offers the strong and ultra-fast EO response of EO polymer. As compared to conventional photonic electric field sensors, our directional coupler waveguide design offers several advantages such as bias-free operation, highly linear measurement response up to 70dB, and a wide electric field detection range from 16.7V/m to 750kV/m at a frequency of 1GHz.