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High-speed silicon photonic electro-optic Kerr modulation

High-speed silicon photonic electro-optic Kerr modulation
High-speed silicon photonic electro-optic Kerr modulation
Silicon-based electro-optic modulators contribute to easing the integration of high-speed and low-power consumption circuits for classical optical communications and data computations. Beyond the plasma dispersion modulation, an alternative solution in silicon is to exploit the DC Kerr effect, which generates an equivalent linear electro-optical effect enabled by applying a large DC electric field. Although some theoretical and experimental studies have shown its existence in silicon, limited contributions relative to plasma dispersion have been achieved in high-speed modulation so far. This paper presents high-speed optical modulation based on the DC Kerr effect in silicon PIN waveguides. The contributions of both plasma dispersion and Kerr effects have been analyzed in different waveguide configurations, and we demonstrated that the Kerr induced modulation is dominant when a high external DC electric field is applied in PIN waveguides. High-speed optical modulation response is analyzed, and eye diagrams up to 80 Gbit/s in NRZ format are obtained under a d.c. voltage of 30 V. This work paves the way to exploit the Kerr effect to generate high-speed Pockels-like optical modulation.
2327-9125
51-60
Peltier, Jonathan
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Zhang, Weiwei
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Virot, Leopold
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Lafforgue, Christian
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Daniel, Lucas
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Marris-Morini, Delphine
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Aubin, Guy
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Amar, Farah
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Tran, Dehn
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Yan, Xingzhao
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Littlejohns, Callum
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Alonso-Ramos, Carlos
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Li, Ke
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Thomson, David
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Reed, Graham
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Vivien, Laurent
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Peltier, Jonathan
b0412e37-f8d1-4b46-8503-0675dd0ce5a0
Zhang, Weiwei
1a783f97-c5ac-49e9-a5a0-49b8b2efab36
Virot, Leopold
0e4c635d-ebc1-4a30-80c3-3c43b2bb3a1f
Lafforgue, Christian
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Daniel, Lucas
675747ba-6385-4a37-bae6-013e4e37b6da
Marris-Morini, Delphine
5e0c2444-d9f7-4042-9825-aef085d19c0b
Aubin, Guy
e9149245-fbee-45dd-83c4-beba868c3c1a
Amar, Farah
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Tran, Dehn
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Yan, Xingzhao
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Littlejohns, Callum
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Alonso-Ramos, Carlos
d4a2a6d1-977d-4351-b014-e111f3a169f7
Li, Ke
dd788ca7-0a39-4364-b4b8-65f0bb93340f
Thomson, David
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Reed, Graham
ca08dd60-c072-4d7d-b254-75714d570139
Vivien, Laurent
5d50499d-209f-4c4d-ad83-f97a4326d8f8

Peltier, Jonathan, Zhang, Weiwei, Virot, Leopold, Lafforgue, Christian, Daniel, Lucas, Marris-Morini, Delphine, Aubin, Guy, Amar, Farah, Tran, Dehn, Yan, Xingzhao, Littlejohns, Callum, Alonso-Ramos, Carlos, Li, Ke, Thomson, David, Reed, Graham and Vivien, Laurent (2023) High-speed silicon photonic electro-optic Kerr modulation. Photonics Research, 12 (1), 51-60. (doi:10.1364/PRJ.488867).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Silicon-based electro-optic modulators contribute to easing the integration of high-speed and low-power consumption circuits for classical optical communications and data computations. Beyond the plasma dispersion modulation, an alternative solution in silicon is to exploit the DC Kerr effect, which generates an equivalent linear electro-optical effect enabled by applying a large DC electric field. Although some theoretical and experimental studies have shown its existence in silicon, limited contributions relative to plasma dispersion have been achieved in high-speed modulation so far. This paper presents high-speed optical modulation based on the DC Kerr effect in silicon PIN waveguides. The contributions of both plasma dispersion and Kerr effects have been analyzed in different waveguide configurations, and we demonstrated that the Kerr induced modulation is dominant when a high external DC electric field is applied in PIN waveguides. High-speed optical modulation response is analyzed, and eye diagrams up to 80 Gbit/s in NRZ format are obtained under a d.c. voltage of 30 V. This work paves the way to exploit the Kerr effect to generate high-speed Pockels-like optical modulation.

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Accepted/In Press date: 7 August 2023
Published date: 14 December 2023

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 500363
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/500363
ISSN: 2327-9125
PURE UUID: 8b218bbd-477e-4fc2-a8ab-3b5687c0454f
ORCID for Graham Reed: ORCID iD orcid.org/0009-0002-5314-6604

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Date deposited: 28 Apr 2025 16:39
Last modified: 22 Aug 2025 02:06

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Contributors

Author: Jonathan Peltier
Author: Weiwei Zhang
Author: Leopold Virot
Author: Christian Lafforgue
Author: Lucas Daniel
Author: Delphine Marris-Morini
Author: Guy Aubin
Author: Farah Amar
Author: Dehn Tran
Author: Xingzhao Yan
Author: Callum Littlejohns
Author: Carlos Alonso-Ramos
Author: Ke Li
Author: David Thomson
Author: Graham Reed ORCID iD
Author: Laurent Vivien

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