Advances in thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic modulators

Electro-optic modulators are widely used in optical communication systems. It changes the amplitude, phase, and other information of the optical carrier by applying external electrical signals, thus realizing the conversion between highspeed electrical signals and optical signals. With the increasing demand for data traffic and communication network bandwidth, higher requirements are proposed for the performance and integration of electro-optic modulators. Thin-film lithium niobate modulators have low power consumption, large bandwidth, small size, and relatively mature preparation technology. These advantages make them become a practical solution for the future development of integrated optics. This paper reviews the working principle and design methods of thin-film lithium niobate electro-optic modulators, systematically summarizes the significant performance indicators of modulators, introduces the research progress of mainstream structural electro-optic modulators such as phase modulators and Mach-Zehnder intensity modulators, and discusses the currently effective solutions used to improve modulator performance. Finally, the problems and future development of thin-film electro-optic modulators are summarized and prospected.