Demonstration of a photonically controlled RF phase shifter

Integrated photonic radio frequency (RF) phase shifters with de voltage con trol have been realized using a nested dual Mach-Zehnder modulator configur ation in a hew nonlinear optical polymer, CLD2-ISX. These modulators have a V-pi of 10.8 V and exhibit excellent frequency performance measured up to 20 GHz. A near linear phase shift exceeding 108 degrees was obtained for a 16-GHz microwave signal by tuning the de control voltage over a 7.8-V range . It is expected that these integrated polymer phase shifters will find wid espread applications in new types of lightweight optically controlled phase d array systems.