A polymer electro-optic (EO) waveguide beam-steering device with deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) biopolymer conductive cladding layers and a core layer of the commercially available EO polymer SEO100 is demonstrated with 100% relative poling efficiency. This demonstration device exhibits a deflection efficiency of 99 mrad∕kV with a corresponding in-device EO coefficient r 33 of 124 pm∕V at 1550 nm. When the DNA biopolymer bottom cladding layer is replaced by the commonly used cladding polymer UV15, the deflection efficiency and in-device r 33 drop to 34 mrad∕kV and 43 pm∕V, respectively. © 2012 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).

In this paper we present our current research in exploring a DNA biopolymer for photonics applications. A new processing technique has been adopted that employs a modified soxhlet-dialysis (SD) rinsing technique to completely remove excess ionic contaminants from the DNA biopolymer, resulting in a material with greater mechanical stability and enhanced performance reproducibility. This newly processed material has been shown to be an excellent material for cladding layers in poled polymer electro-optic (EO) waveguide modulator applications. Thin film poling results are reported for materials using the DNA biopolymer as a cladding layer, as are results for beam steering devices also using the DNA biopolymer. Finally, progress on fabrication of a Mach Zehnder EO modulator with DNA biopolymer claddings using nanoimprint lithography techniques is reported.

No abstract