An electro-optic waveform interconnect based on quantum interference

Abstract

The ability to modulate an optical field via an electric field is regarded as a key function of electro-optic interconnects, which are used in optical communications and information processing systems. One of the main required devices for such interconnects is the electro-optic modulator (EOM). Current EOM based on the electro-optic effect and the electro-absorption effect often is bulky and power inefficient due to the weak electro-optic properties of its constituent materials. Here we propose a new mechanism to produce an arbitrary-waveform EOM based on the quantum interference, in which both the real and imaginary parts of the susceptibility are engineered coherently with the superhigh efficiency. Based on this EOM, a waveform interconnect from the voltage to the modulated optical absorption is realised. We expect that such a new type of electro-optic interconnect will have a broad range of applications including the optical communications and network.