Silicon-Photonic Electro-Optic Phase Modulators Integrating Transparent Conducting Oxides

Higher-order digital modulation formats are demonstrated by electrically inducing free-carrier concentration changes in thin films of transparent conducting oxides, integrated into well-established silicon-photonic waveguiding architectures. The proposed near-infrared modulators employ as physical p...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IEEE journal of quantum electronics 2018-08, Vol.54 (4), p.1-8
Main Authors: Sinatkas, Georgios, Kriezis, Emmanouil E.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amplitude modulation
Carrier density
charge carriers
electro-optic modulators
Electrooptic modulators
Electrooptical waveguides
Energy consumption
Hafnium compounds
Indium tin oxide
Insertion loss
Insulators
Lithium niobates
Modulators
Oxides
phase modulation
Phase shift keying
Photonics
Silicon
Silicon photonics
Solid state physics
Thin films
Waveguides
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Summary:Higher-order digital modulation formats are demonstrated by electrically inducing free-carrier concentration changes in thin films of transparent conducting oxides, integrated into well-established silicon-photonic waveguiding architectures. The proposed near-infrared modulators employ as physical platforms the silicon-rib and silicon-slot waveguides, exploiting the highly dispersive and carrier-dependent epsilon-near-zero behavior of transparent conducting oxides to modulate the optical carrier. Advancing the existing studies on conventional amplitude modulation, phase-shift keying formats are investigated in this paper, using a rigorous and physically consistent modeling framework that seamlessly combines solid-state physics with Maxwell wave theory through carrier-dependent material models. The designed in-line modulators achieve Vπ L products in the order of 0.1 Vmm, two orders of magnitude lower than their respective all-silicon or lithium niobate counterparts, accompanied by an insertion loss of about 3 dB/π. Switching speeds in the order of 50 GHz are feasible along with a potential for sub-pJ/symbol energy consumption, meeting the demands for on-chip optical modulation.
ISSN:0018-9197
1558-1713
DOI:10.1109/JQE.2018.2852144