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
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Ebert, Martin
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Li, Ke
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Chen, Bigeng
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Yan, Xingzhao
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Du, Han
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Banakar, Mehdi
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Tran, Dehn
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Littlejohns, Callum
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Scofield, Adam
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Yu, Guomin
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Shafiiha, Roshanak
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Zilkie, Aaron
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Reed, Graham T.
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Thomson, David
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March 2023
Zhang, Weiwei
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Ebert, Martin
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Li, Ke
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Chen, Bigeng
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Yan, Xingzhao
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Du, Han
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Banakar, Mehdi
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Tran, Dehn
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Littlejohns, Callum
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Scofield, Adam
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Yu, Guomin
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Shafiiha, Roshanak
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Zilkie, Aaron
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Reed, Graham T.
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Thomson, David
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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.
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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
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Date deposited: 08 Mar 2023 17:52
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:39
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Author:
Bigeng Chen
Author:
Han Du
Author:
Dehn Tran
Author:
Adam Scofield
Author:
Guomin Yu
Author:
Roshanak Shafiiha
Author:
Aaron Zilkie
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