Compact low-power-consumption optical modulator

Optical modulators are indispensable devices for optical fiber communications. They turn light emitted from a laser diode on and off at ultrahigh speed and generate high-speed optical signals. By employing the "n-i-n structure" in the core layer, NTT Photonics Laboratories has developed an optical modulator that is less than one-tenth the size and consumes one-third the power of commercially available devices. This success is a major step toward broadband technologies that will reduce the load on the environment.