Electro-mechanically induced GHz rate optical frequency modulation in silicon

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a silicon acousto-optic modulator operating at 1.09GHz, achieving significant enhancement in frequency modulation through mechanical leverage, enabling high-speed optical modulation in silicon.

Contribution

It introduces a monolithic silicon acousto-optic frequency modulator with mechanical leverage, achieving over 67 times greater modulation efficiency than previous silicon nanobeam devices.

Findings

Achieved 1.09GHz modulation frequency in silicon

Demonstrated asymmetric sidebands indicating combined amplitude and frequency modulation

Enhanced modulation efficiency by over 67 times using mechanical levers

Abstract

We present a monolithic silicon acousto-optic frequency modulator (AOFM) operating at 1.09GHz. Direct spectroscopy of the modulated laser power shows asymmetric sidebands which indicate coincident amplitude modulation and frequency modulation. Employing mechanical levers to enhance displacement of the optical resonator resulted in greater than 67X improvement in the opto-mechanical frequency modulation factor over earlier reported numbers for silicon nanobeams.