The invention discloses a thin film
lithium niobate modulator with a stepped three-layer
electrode structure and a preparation method. The thin film
lithium niobate modulator with the stepped three-layer
electrode structure sequentially comprises a substrate layer, a buffer layer, a
lithium niobate thin film layer, two
lithium niobate ridge waveguides, a
metal traveling wave
electrode and a
dielectric layer from bottom to top, the
metal traveling wave electrodes are distributed on the two sides of the two
lithium niobate ridge waveguides, adopt a ground-
signal-ground push-pull mode and comprise three
layers of electrodes, and the lower-layer ground-
signal-ground electrode is tightly attached to a substrate area of the
lithium niobate ridge waveguides and used for providing uniform initial
electric field distribution; the middle-layer ground-
signal-ground electrode is wider than the lower-layer ground-signal-ground electrode and is used for adjusting
electric field distribution and increasing the conductor area so as to reduce
microwave loss; and the upper-layer ground-signal-ground electrode is wider than the middle-layer ground-signal-ground electrode and is used for reducing impedance and enhancing the uniformity of
electric field distribution. According to the invention, the
modulation bandwidth can be significantly improved while the low half-wave
voltage is maintained.