High efficiency and compact lithium niobate non-resonant recirculating phase modulator and its applications

Abstract

High modulation efficiency and a compact footprint are critical for next-generation electro-optic (EO) modulators. We introduce a new class of non-resonant recirculating phase modulators (PMs) that boosts modulation efficiency by repeatedly modulating the optical field within a single, non-resonant waveguide, while fundamentally removing the loop-length matching constraint that has limited prior recirculating schemes. This architectural breakthrough simultaneously enables a much smaller device footprint and an extended low-V$\pi$ bandwidth, without relying on narrowband resonances. Building on this concept, we experimentally demonstrate both a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) and a cascaded PM, and verify their versatility in finite impulse response (FIR) filtering and optical frequency comb (OFC) generation. The recirculating MZM operates as a 4-tap rectangular-window FIR filter with 110 GHz bandwidth in a compact 2.889$\times$0.58 mm$^2$ footprint. The cascaded PM achieves a 3.40 GHz low-V$\pi$ bandwidth, a 110 GHz resonant EO bandwidth, and a V$\pi$L of 0.7 V$\cdot$cm, and generates 20 OFC lines under a 33 dBm microwave drive. These results demonstrate, for the first time, a practical and highly efficient non-resonant recirculating modulation platform, laying the groundwork for scalable high-order mode recirculating modulators (RMs) and opening new opportunities in optical communications, sensing, and microwave photonics.