High-performance coherent optical modulators based on thin-film lithium niobate platform

The coherent transmission technology using digital signal processing and advanced modulation formats, is bringing networks closer to the theoretical capacity limit of optical fibres, the Shannon limit. The in-phase/quadrature electro-optic modulator that encodes information on both the amplitude and the phase of light, is one of the underpinning devices for the coherent transmission technology. Ideally, such modulator should feature a low loss, low drive voltage, large bandwidth, low chirp and compact footprint. However, these requirements have been only met on separate occasions. Here, we demonstrate integrated thin-film lithium niobate in-phase/quadrature modulators that fulfil these requirements simultaneously. The presented devices exhibit greatly improved overall performance (half-wave voltage, bandwidth and optical loss) over traditional lithium niobate counterparts, and support modulation data rate up to 320 Gbit s−1. Our devices pave new routes for future high-speed, energy-efficient, and cost-effective communication networks. In-phase/quadrature (IQ) electro-optic modulators are underpinning devices for coherent transmission technology. Here the authors present IQ modulators in the lithium-niobate-on-insulator platform, which provide improved overall performance and advanced modulation formats for future coherent transmission systems.