Superconducting acousto-optic phase modulator.

We report the development of a superconducting acousto-optic phase modulator fabricated on a lithium niobate substrate. A titanium-diffused optical waveguide is placed in a surface acoustic wave resonator, where the electrodes for mirrors and an interdigitated transducer are made of a superconducting niobium titanium nitride thin film. The device performance is evaluated as a substitute for the current electro-optic modulators, with the same fiber coupling scheme and comparable device size. Operating the device at a cryogenic temperature (T = 8 K), we observe the length-half-wave-voltage (length-Vπ) product of 1.78 V·cm. Numerical simulation is conducted to reproduce and extrapolate the performance of the device. An optical cavity with mirror coating on the input/output facets of the optical waveguide is tested for further enhancement of the modulation efficiency. A simple extension of the current device is estimated to achieve an efficient modulation with Vπ = 0.27 V.