Expand this Topic clickable element to expand a topic
Skip to content
Optica Publishing Group
Journal Home About Issues in Progress Current Issue All Issues Feature Issues

Compact electro-optic modulator on silicon-on-insulator substrates using cavities with ultra-small modal volumes

Bradley Schmidt, Qianfan Xu, Jagat Shakya, Sasikanth Manipatruni, and Michal Lipson

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a micron-size electro-optic modulator using a high-index-contrast silicon Fabry-Pérot resonator cavity. This compact device consists of a 1-D cavity formed within a single mode silicon channel waveguide and an embedded p-i-n junction on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The entire device is 6.0 microns in length. We demonstrate modulation depths as large as 5.87 dB at speeds of 250 Mbps limited only by fabrication imperfections, with optimized theoretical speeds of several Gbps.

©2007 Optical Society of America

Full Article  |  PDF Article
More Like This
Compact 1D-silicon photonic crystal electro-optic modulator operating with ultra-low switching voltage and energy

Abdul Shakoor, Kengo Nozaki, Eiichi Kuramochi, Katsuhiko Nishiguchi, Akihiko Shinya, and Masaya Notomi
Opt. Express 22(23) 28623-28634 (2014)

Deposited silicon high-speed integrated electro-optic modulator

Kyle Preston, Sasikanth Manipatruni, Alexander Gondarenko, Carl B. Poitras, and Michal Lipson
Opt. Express 17(7) 5118-5124 (2009)

Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 Gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator

William M. J. Green, Michael J. Rooks, Lidija Sekaric, and Yurii A. Vlasov
Opt. Express 15(25) 17106-17113 (2007)

View More...

Cited By

Optica participates in Crossref's Cited-By Linking service. Citing articles from Optica Publishing Group journals and other participating publishers are listed here.

Alert me when this article is cited.


Figures (7)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. (a) Schematic of the F-P modulator. The effective refractive index in the cavity is changed by carrier injection and extraction when a potential is applied across the p-i-n. (b) Optical image of a fabricated device with a cavity length of 2.51 microns on a SOI substrate, showing the metal contacts and vias on either side. The contacts are much larger than the actual doped regions. The entire device is shorter than 6 microns in length.

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. Measured transmission spectrum of the micro-cavity for an applied voltage of 0.8 V (below threshold) and 5.6 V (above threshold).

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 3.
Fig. 3. Transmission as a function of applied DC bias for a wavelength of 1568.54 nm.

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 4.
Fig. 4. Optical modulation due to an applied electrical signal at 250 Mbps.

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 5.
Fig. 5. Optical extinction ratio as a function of the speed of the applied AC signal.

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. (a) Simulated 1 GBPS operation for the present device with (Q=780, voltage swing of 2.0 V and DC bias of 0.3 V. (b) Simulated rise and fall times for electrically ideal p-i-n structures with different Q’s.

Download Full Size | PDF

Fig. 7.
Fig. 7. Absolute shift in the peak resonance as a function of the DC power consumed in the device for a ring resonator (circumference = 31.4 μm) and a F-P cavity (length of 2.51 μm).

Download Full Size | PDF

Equations (4)

Equations on this page are rendered with MathJax. Learn more.

Δ n cavity = − [ 8.8 × 10 − 22 • ( Δ N e ) + 8.5 × 10 − 18 • ( Δ N h ) 0.8 ]
Δ n cavity ∝ P AL
MD ∝ Δ λ resonance δ λ FWHM ∝ Q • P AL
FOM = MD × Bandwidth Power ∝ 1 V eff
Select as filters
Select Topics Cancel
Top
       
© Copyright 2024 | Optica Publishing Group. All rights reserved, including rights for text and data mining and training of artificial technologies or similar technologies.
Privacy | Terms of Use