DNA biopolymer conductive cladding for polymer electro-optic waveguide modulators

A deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) biopolymer has been studied for use as a conductive cladding layer in polymer electro-optic (EO) waveguide modulators due to its low optical loss and high electrical conductivity relative to its inorganic polymer counterparts. Electric field contact poling measurements using a DNA biopolymer cladding layer with an amorphous polycarbonate/chromophore (APC/CLD1) guest-host system core layer have been made and compared to a UV15 cladding layer. Using the EO coefficient of APC/CLD1 with no cladding layer as a baseline, the DNA biopolymer cladding layer yielded relative poling efficiencies of 96% while the UV15 poling efficiencies were only 51%. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3562953]