Design of a Plasmonic Absorption Electro-optical Modulator Based on n-doped Silicon and Barium Titanate

TL;DR

This paper presents a numerical design of a plasmonic absorption electro-optical modulator using layered materials including silicon and barium titanate, demonstrating high potential for optical communication and CMOS integration.

Contribution

It introduces a novel six-layer plasmonic modulator design considering Pockels and free carrier effects, with analytical and numerical analysis of its dispersion relation.

Findings

Maximum figure of merit of 12.79

High potential for optical communication applications

Compatibility with CMOS technology

Abstract

In this paper, a numerical solution for a plasmonic absorption modulator is presented with a six-layer structure consisting of an air superstrate, a gold layer, a barium titanate layer, a n type silicon layer, a gold layer and a thin-shell nanolattice aluminium oxide substrate. Regarding the suggested structure, the parameters related to the absorption modulation are investigated at different thicknesses. Here, the Pockels effect and the free carrier dispersion effect are considered simultaneously. The dispersion relation of this structure is analytically obtained and numerically solved by the Nelder-Mead method. The maximum calculated figure of merit is 12.79. Furthermore, according to our results, it is understood that this modulator has a high ability to be utilized in optical communication systems. Also, it could be integrated to the microelectronic systems and it is compatible with CMOS technology.