Ultratransparent PMN‐PT Electro‐Optic Ceramics and Its Application in Optical Communication

Abstract Electro‐optic (E‐O) materials are essential to modern information society, especially for optical switches, modulators, and filters in optical communication. In this paper, ultrahigh transparent (1− x )Pb(Mg 1/3 Nb 2/3 )O 3 ‐ x PbTiO 3 (PMN‐PT) relaxor ferroelectric ceramics are fabricated. The effect of Sm‐doping content (0, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mol%) on PMN‐PT transparent ceramics is systematically investigated on the optical transparency, electro‐optic coefficient, extinction ratio, and half‐wave voltage. Results indicate that 0.5 mol% Sm‐doped PMN‐PT ceramic shows the optimal comprehensive performance, including high transparency of 69.6%, large quadratic E‐O coefficient of 35 × 10 –16 m 2 V −2 , decent extinction ratio of 32 dB, and low half‐wave voltage (113 V at d = L = 1 mm). An electro‐optic modulator is designed based on the PMN‐PT transparent ceramics and its application in optical communication is realized, such as rapid information modulation, analog signal (audio frequency), and digital signal (graphic patterns) transmission. These results indicate that Sm‐doped PMN– x PT transparent ceramics are promising candidates for E‐O modulation applications.