Highly efficient silicon modulator via a slow-wave Michelson structure

The weak free carrier dispersion effect significantly hinders the adoption of silicon modulators in low-power applications. While various structures have been demonstrated to reduce the half-wave voltage, it is always challenging to balance the trade-off between modulation efficiency and the bandwid...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics letters 2024-06, Vol.49 (11), p.3202
Main Authors: Wang, Jianing, Wang, Xi, Li, Jian, Yang, Yanfu, Du, Jiangbing, Song, Qinghai, Xu, Ke
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bandwidths
Modulation
Modulators
Silicon
Traveling waves
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Summary:The weak free carrier dispersion effect significantly hinders the adoption of silicon modulators in low-power applications. While various structures have been demonstrated to reduce the half-wave voltage, it is always challenging to balance the trade-off between modulation efficiency and the bandwidth. Here, we demonstrated a slow-wave Michelson structure with 1-mm-long active length. The modulator was designed at the emerging 2-μm wave band which has a stronger free carrier effect. A record high modulation efficiency of 0.29 V·cm was achieved under a carrier depletion mode. The T-rail traveling wave electrodes were designed to improve the modulation bandwidth to 13.3 GHz. Up to 20 Gb/s intensity modulation was achieved at a wavelength of 1976 nm.
ISSN:0146-9592
1539-4794
1539-4794
DOI:10.1364/OL.527292