Integrated Electro-Optic Absorption Modulator for Silicon Nitride Platform

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first high-speed ITO electro-optic modulators integrated with silicon nitride waveguides, achieving 1 GHz bandwidth and low insertion loss, advancing silicon nitride photonics for high-speed applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first high-speed ITO EO modulators on silicon nitride, combining CMOS-compatible fabrication with promising performance for integrated photonics.

Findings

Insertion loss of 5.7 dB achieved

Bandwidth of about 1 GHz demonstrated

Fabrication compatible with CMOS technology

Abstract

Silicon nitride (SiN) is currently the most prominent platform for photonics at visible and near-IR wavelength bandwidth. However, realizing fast electro-optic (EO) modulators, the key components of any integrated optics platform, remains challenging in SiN. Recently, transparent conductive oxides (TCO) have emerged as a promising platform for photonic integrated circuits. Here we make an important step towards exceeding possibilities of both platforms, reporting for the first-time high-speed ITO electro-optic modulators based on silicon nitride waveguides. The insertion losses of 5.7 dB and bandwidth of about 1 GHz are shown for 300 nm-thickness SiN waveguide platform with 9.3-um-length hybrid waveguide. The fabrication process of devices requires only standard clean room tools, is repeatable and compatible with the CMOS technology. Simulation results of optimized device designs indicate that further improvement is possible and offer promising opportunities towards silicon nitride photonic computation platforms based on ITO.