Harnessing plasma absorption in silicon MOS ring modulators
Harnessing plasma absorption in silicon MOS ring modulators
High bandwidth, low power and compact silicon electro-optical modulators are essential for future energy efficient and densely integrated optical data communication circuits. The all-silicon plasma dispersion effect ring resonator modulator is an attractive prospect. However, its performance is currently limited by the trade-off between modulation depth and switching speed dictated by its quality factor. Here we introduce a mechanism to leap beyond this limitation by harnessing the plasma absorption induced in a silicon MOS waveguide to enhance the extinction ratio of a low quality factor, high-speed ring modulator. Fabricated devices have demonstrated a modulation depth ~ 27dB for a bias ~ 3.5V. Modulation enhancement has been observed for frequencies of operation from kHz to GHz with data modulation up to 100Gbit/s on-off keying demonstrated, paving the evolution of optical interconnects to 100 Gbaud and beyond per wavelength.
273–279
Zhang, Weiwei
1a783f97-c5ac-49e9-a5a0-49b8b2efab36
Ebert, Martin
1a8f1756-d724-4b44-8504-c01f8dc7aa50
Li, Ke
dd788ca7-0a39-4364-b4b8-65f0bb93340f
Chen, Bigeng
e533448b-095e-4a9f-924c-301f4aa3007b
Yan, Xingzhao
e1f3f636-74e4-42d5-81c7-04feec2b85ba
Du, Han
f68d2391-e6fb-4fbc-bbe0-86ce9a871352
Banakar, Mehdi
ad56fc0a-728c-4abb-8be5-74318bb2758e
Tran, Dehn
44a138fd-40d6-4bff-9fad-5e16bc0662d6
Littlejohns, Callum
d2837f04-0a83-4bf9-acb2-618aa42a0cad
Scofield, Adam
a7b85128-b9fe-49c8-9b29-7a7e0520f20d
Yu, Guomin
08f4e587-41fc-4a73-b137-1434c9db6598
Shafiiha, Roshanak
77208b62-c6e4-4878-94ed-43e60c862366
Zilkie, Aaron
64f8de79-8a8a-423f-a5a3-9f5dcebea407
Reed, Graham T.
ca08dd60-c072-4d7d-b254-75714d570139
Thomson, David
17c1626c-2422-42c6-98e0-586ae220bcda
March 2023
Zhang, Weiwei
1a783f97-c5ac-49e9-a5a0-49b8b2efab36
Ebert, Martin
1a8f1756-d724-4b44-8504-c01f8dc7aa50
Li, Ke
dd788ca7-0a39-4364-b4b8-65f0bb93340f
Chen, Bigeng
e533448b-095e-4a9f-924c-301f4aa3007b
Yan, Xingzhao
e1f3f636-74e4-42d5-81c7-04feec2b85ba
Du, Han
f68d2391-e6fb-4fbc-bbe0-86ce9a871352
Banakar, Mehdi
ad56fc0a-728c-4abb-8be5-74318bb2758e
Tran, Dehn
44a138fd-40d6-4bff-9fad-5e16bc0662d6
Littlejohns, Callum
d2837f04-0a83-4bf9-acb2-618aa42a0cad
Scofield, Adam
a7b85128-b9fe-49c8-9b29-7a7e0520f20d
Yu, Guomin
08f4e587-41fc-4a73-b137-1434c9db6598
Shafiiha, Roshanak
77208b62-c6e4-4878-94ed-43e60c862366
Zilkie, Aaron
64f8de79-8a8a-423f-a5a3-9f5dcebea407
Reed, Graham T.
ca08dd60-c072-4d7d-b254-75714d570139
Thomson, David
17c1626c-2422-42c6-98e0-586ae220bcda
Zhang, Weiwei, Ebert, Martin, Li, Ke, Chen, Bigeng, Yan, Xingzhao, Du, Han, Banakar, Mehdi, Tran, Dehn, Littlejohns, Callum, Scofield, Adam, Yu, Guomin, Shafiiha, Roshanak, Zilkie, Aaron, Reed, Graham T. and Thomson, David
(2023)
Harnessing plasma absorption in silicon MOS ring modulators.
Nature Photonics, 17 (3), .
(doi:10.1038/s41566-023-01159-3).
Abstract
High bandwidth, low power and compact silicon electro-optical modulators are essential for future energy efficient and densely integrated optical data communication circuits. The all-silicon plasma dispersion effect ring resonator modulator is an attractive prospect. However, its performance is currently limited by the trade-off between modulation depth and switching speed dictated by its quality factor. Here we introduce a mechanism to leap beyond this limitation by harnessing the plasma absorption induced in a silicon MOS waveguide to enhance the extinction ratio of a low quality factor, high-speed ring modulator. Fabricated devices have demonstrated a modulation depth ~ 27dB for a bias ~ 3.5V. Modulation enhancement has been observed for frequencies of operation from kHz to GHz with data modulation up to 100Gbit/s on-off keying demonstrated, paving the evolution of optical interconnects to 100 Gbaud and beyond per wavelength.
Text
Main_article_accepted
- Accepted Manuscript
Text
Supplementary_file
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 19 January 2023
e-pub ahead of print date: 20 February 2023
Published date: March 2023
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work was supported by funding from Rockley Photonics and the EPSRC through the Prosperity Partnership (EP/R003076/1), EPSRC Platform Grant (EP/N013247/1), EPSRC Strategic Equipment Grant (EP/T019697/1) and European Commission H2020 PICTURE Project (780930). D.J.T. acknowledges funding from the Royal Society for his University Research Fellowship (UF150325).
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 474996
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/474996
ISSN: 1749-4885
PURE UUID: d9ff2a1e-f8cd-4164-97c8-15665169cb10
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 08 Mar 2023 17:52
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:39
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Weiwei Zhang
Author:
Martin Ebert
Author:
Ke Li
Author:
Bigeng Chen
Author:
Xingzhao Yan
Author:
Han Du
Author:
Mehdi Banakar
Author:
Dehn Tran
Author:
Callum Littlejohns
Author:
Adam Scofield
Author:
Guomin Yu
Author:
Roshanak Shafiiha
Author:
Aaron Zilkie
Author:
Graham T. Reed
Author:
David Thomson
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics