Slow-light-enhanced silicon optical modulators under low-drive-voltage operation
Slow-light-enhanced silicon optical modulators under low-drive-voltage operation
The integration of nanophotonics components with advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics requires drive voltages as low as 1 V for enabling next-generation CMOS electrophotonics transceivers. Slow-light propagation has been recently demonstrated as an effective mechanism to enhance the modulation efficiency in free-carrier-based electrooptical silicon modulators. Here, we exploit the use of slow light to reduce the driving voltage of carrier-depletion-based Mach-Zehnder modulators. The slow-light phase shifter consists of a p-n junction positioned in the middle of a corrugated waveguide. A modulation efficiency as high as Vπ Lπ ∼ 0.6 V·cm is achieved, thus allowing data transmission rates up to 10 Gb/s with a 1.5-Vpp drive voltage and an insertion loss of ∼ 12 dB. The influence of the drive voltage on the modulation speed as well as the variation of the insertion losses with a group index is also analyzed and discussed.
optical interconnects, photonic band-gap structures, silicon nanophotonics, Slow light
1306-1315
Brimont, Antoine
65d0f266-a134-4c75-9990-097b5b107364
Gutierrez, Ana M.
8e650d0e-c2ba-42c7-bedc-8f91e9e71627
Aamer, Mariam
67d191ff-eecc-4639-b357-512ebb526ad0
Thomson, David J.
17c1626c-2422-42c6-98e0-586ae220bcda
Gardes, Frederic Y.
7a49fc6d-dade-4099-b016-c60737cb5bb2
Fedeli, Jean Marc
dfd01829-9a9a-4157-b9fe-aafa1a3d00e9
Reed, Graham T.
ca08dd60-c072-4d7d-b254-75714d570139
Martí, Javier
6e71e500-a056-4d59-b08f-ba1c7873adae
Sanchis, Pablo
aa5e2989-4cc9-411c-a468-b4bba6a66876
1 October 2012
Brimont, Antoine
65d0f266-a134-4c75-9990-097b5b107364
Gutierrez, Ana M.
8e650d0e-c2ba-42c7-bedc-8f91e9e71627
Aamer, Mariam
67d191ff-eecc-4639-b357-512ebb526ad0
Thomson, David J.
17c1626c-2422-42c6-98e0-586ae220bcda
Gardes, Frederic Y.
7a49fc6d-dade-4099-b016-c60737cb5bb2
Fedeli, Jean Marc
dfd01829-9a9a-4157-b9fe-aafa1a3d00e9
Reed, Graham T.
ca08dd60-c072-4d7d-b254-75714d570139
Martí, Javier
6e71e500-a056-4d59-b08f-ba1c7873adae
Sanchis, Pablo
aa5e2989-4cc9-411c-a468-b4bba6a66876
Brimont, Antoine, Gutierrez, Ana M., Aamer, Mariam, Thomson, David J., Gardes, Frederic Y., Fedeli, Jean Marc, Reed, Graham T., Martí, Javier and Sanchis, Pablo
(2012)
Slow-light-enhanced silicon optical modulators under low-drive-voltage operation.
IEEE Photonics Journal, 4 (5), , [6248737].
(doi:10.1109/JPHOT.2012.2207884).
Abstract
The integration of nanophotonics components with advanced complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics requires drive voltages as low as 1 V for enabling next-generation CMOS electrophotonics transceivers. Slow-light propagation has been recently demonstrated as an effective mechanism to enhance the modulation efficiency in free-carrier-based electrooptical silicon modulators. Here, we exploit the use of slow light to reduce the driving voltage of carrier-depletion-based Mach-Zehnder modulators. The slow-light phase shifter consists of a p-n junction positioned in the middle of a corrugated waveguide. A modulation efficiency as high as Vπ Lπ ∼ 0.6 V·cm is achieved, thus allowing data transmission rates up to 10 Gb/s with a 1.5-Vpp drive voltage and an insertion loss of ∼ 12 dB. The influence of the drive voltage on the modulation speed as well as the variation of the insertion losses with a group index is also analyzed and discussed.
Text
Slow-Light-Enhanced_Silicon_Optical_Modulators_Under_Low-Drive-Voltage_Operation
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 2 July 2012
e-pub ahead of print date: 25 July 2012
Published date: 1 October 2012
Additional Information:
This work was supported by the European Commission under Project HELIOS (photonics electronics functional integration on CMOS), FP7224312, and by the TEC2008-06333 SINADEC and PROMETEO-2010-087 R&D Excellency Program (NANOMET). The work of F. Y. Gardes, D. J. Thomson, and G. T. Reed was supported by the UK Environmental and Physical Sciences Research Council funding body under the grant BUK Silicon Photonics.
Keywords:
optical interconnects, photonic band-gap structures, silicon nanophotonics, Slow light
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 471233
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/471233
ISSN: 1943-0655
PURE UUID: 07fee3bf-2b2b-4e84-81a8-f44231163696
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Date deposited: 01 Nov 2022 17:36
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:19
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Contributors
Author:
Antoine Brimont
Author:
Ana M. Gutierrez
Author:
Mariam Aamer
Author:
Jean Marc Fedeli
Author:
Javier Martí
Author:
Pablo Sanchis
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