Piezo-optomechanical cantilever modulators for VLSI visible photonics

TL;DR

This paper introduces piezo-optomechanical cantilever modulators integrated on a CMOS platform for visible photonics, enabling low-voltage, high-contrast, and broadband phase modulation suitable for scalable VLSI photonic circuits.

Contribution

It presents a novel low-voltage optical phase shifter based on piezo-actuated cantilevers fabricated on a CMOS-compatible platform, demonstrating high performance in visible wavelengths.

Findings

Achieved linear phase modulation with 6 V$_{ ext{ extpi}}$-cm

Demonstrated up to 40 dB contrast in the 700-780 nm range

Reduced operating voltage to 0.15 V$_{ ext{ extpi}}$-cm through resonant enhancement

Abstract

Visible-wavelength very large-scale integration (VLSI) photonic circuits have potential to play important roles in quantum information and sensing technologies. The realization of scalable, high-speed, and low-loss photonic mesh circuits depends on reliable and well-engineered visible photonic components. Here we report a low-voltage optical phase shifter based on piezo-actuated mechanical cantilevers, fabricated on a CMOS compatible, 200 mm wafer-based visible photonics platform. We show linear phase and amplitude modulation with 6 V$_{\pi}$-cm in differential operation, -1.5 dB to -2 dB insertion loss, and up to 40 dB contrast in the 700 nm - 780 nm range. By adjusting selected cantilever parameters, we demonstrate a low-displacement and a high-displacement device, both exhibiting a nearly flat frequency response from DC to a peak mechanical resonance at 23 MHz and 6.8 MHz respectively, which through resonant enhancement of Q~40, further decreases the operating voltage down to 0.15 V$_{\pi}$-cm.