Broadband energy-efficient optical modulation by hybrid integration of silicon nanophotonics and organic electro-optic polymer

TL;DR

This paper presents a broadband, energy-efficient silicon-organic hybrid optical modulator with record-high EO coefficient and high-speed performance, suitable for advanced photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel silicon-organic hybrid modulator with a record-high EO coefficient and enhanced bandwidth using lattice-shifted PCWs, advancing integrated photonics technology.

Findings

Achieved Vπ*L=0.282Vmm, a record-high EO coefficient of 1230pm/V.

Demonstrated modulation up to 50GHz with a 15GHz bandwidth.

Reduced energy consumption to 94.4fJ/bit at 10Gbit/s.

Abstract

Silicon-organic hybrid integrated devices have emerging applications ranging from high-speed optical interconnects to photonic electromagnetic-field sensors. Silicon slot photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) filled with electro-optic (EO) polymers combine the slow-light effect in PCWs with the high polarizability of EO polymers, which promises the realization of high-performance optical modulators. In this paper, a broadband, power-efficient, low-dispersion, and compact optical modulator based on an EO polymer filled silicon slot PCW is presented. A small voltage-length product of V{\pi}*L=0.282Vmm is achieved, corresponding to an unprecedented record-high effective in-device EO coefficient (r33) of 1230pm/V. Assisted by a backside gate voltage, the modulation response up to 50GHz is observed, with a 3-dB bandwidth of 15GHz, and the estimated energy consumption is 94.4fJ/bit at 10Gbit/s. Furthermore, lattice-shifted PCWs are utilized to enhance the optical bandwidth by a factor of ~10X over other modulators based on non-band-engineered PCWs and ring-resonators.