Ultra-broadband near- to mid-infrared electro-optic modulator on thin-film lithium niobate.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41507157.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1038/s41467-025-67902-2 and PMC identifier 12855882.
- Licence recorded as CC BY-NC-ND.
- Because redistribution is not established, this page shows the abstract only. Follow the links below for the full text.
Abstract
The escalating capacity limitations of conventional near-infrared telecommunication bands have spurred urgent investigations into wide-band optical communication systems spanning from the near-infrared to mid-infrared regimes. This has motivated the development of optical components combining broadband bandwidth with high-speed operation. The state-of-the-art modulators face challenges in achieving broad operational bandwidth due to waveguide dispersion and velocity mismatch. Here we demonstrate a thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) electro-optic (EO) modulator with an unprecedented 800-nm operational bandwidth, covering the full O-U telecom bands and extending into the 2-μm regime. The TFLN modulator exhibits >67 GHz EO bandwidth across O-U bands (~100 GHz at O-/S-/C-/L-bands) and >50 GHz at 2-μm band. It enables single-lane exceeding 240 Gbps PAM-4 transmission across O-U bands and a record 170 Gbps PAM-4 transmission at 2-μm band. This breakthrough establishes TFLN as a compelling platform for multispectral photonics, bridging conventional telecom infrastructure with emerging 2-μm technologies for next-generation optical communications.