Low consumption power variable optical attenuator with sol-gel derived organic/inorganic hybrid materials

An integrated optical waveguide variable optical attenuator (VOA) made of organic/inorganic hybrid materials was fabricated. At 1550 nm, the VOA showed a very low activation power of about 13 mW, due to the large thermo-optic coefficients of the hybrid materials. The optical power attenuations achieved were more than 25 dB for both TE and TM polarization. The response time of the device was less than 4.7 ms.