Silicon-plasmonic integrated circuits for terahertz signal generation and coherent detection

TL;DR

This paper introduces silicon-based plasmonic internal photoemission detectors (PIPED) for integrated terahertz signal generation and detection, achieving up to 1 THz, enabling highly integrated and scalable THz systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates the first monolithic integration of PIPED transmitters and receivers on silicon photonics for THz applications, overcoming previous fabrication limitations.

Findings

Successful generation and detection of T-waves up to 1 THz.

Monolithic silicon integration of PIPED devices.

Measurement of complex transfer impedance of THz components.

Abstract

Optoelectronic signal processing offers great potential for generation and detection of ultra-broadband waveforms in the THz range, so-called T-waves. However, fabrication of the underlying high-speed photodiodes and photoconductors still relies on complex processes using dedicated III-V semiconductor substrates. This severely limits the application potential of current T-wave transmitters and receivers, in particular when it comes to highly integrated systems that combine photonic signal processing with optoelectronic conversion to THz frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate that these limitations can be overcome by plasmonic internal photoemission detectors (PIPED). PIPED can be realized on the silicon photonic platform and hence allow to leverage the enormous opportunities of the associated device portfolio. In our experiments, we demonstrate both T-wave signal generation and coherent detection at frequencies of up to 1 THz. To proof the viability of our concept, we monolithically integrate a PIPED transmitter and a PIPED receiver on a common silicon photonic chip and use them for measuring the complex transfer impedance of an integrated T-wave device.