Numerical modeling and analysis of optical response of electro-optic modulators

This paper presents an analysis of a LiNbO₃ electro-optic modulator using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) technique, and also a new and efficient multiresolution time-domain technique for fast and accurate modeling of photonic devices. The electromagnetic fields computed by FDTD are coupled to standard electro-optic relations that characterize electo-optic interactions. This novel approach to LiNbO₃ electro-optic modulators using a coupled FDTD technique allows for previously unattainable investigations into device operating bandwidth and data transmission speed. On the other hand, the proposed multiresolution approach presented in this paper solves Maxwell´s equations on nonuniform self-adaptive grids, obtained by applying wavelet transforms followed by hard thresholding. The developed technique is employed to simulate a coplanar waveguide CPW, which represents an electro-optic modulator. Different numerical examples are presented showing more than 75% CPU-time reduction, while maintaining the same degree of accuracy of standard FDTD techniques.