Optically induced drift effects in lithium niobate electro-optic waveguide devices operating at a wavelength of 1.51μm

A study of the effect of high optical power levels, at a wavelength of 1.51 μn, on the characteristics of LiNbO3 Mach—Zehnder waveguide modulators is reported. It is shown that the important modulator parameters, i.e. optical phase bias, extinction ratio, insertion loss and switching voltage, are stable for waveguide powers of <75 mW.