15,041 research outputs found
Terahertz All-Optical Modulation in a Silicon-Polymer Hybrid System
Although Gigahertz-scale free-carrier modulators have been previously
demonstrated in silicon, intensity modulators operating at Terahertz speeds
have not been reported because of silicon's weak ultrafast optical
nonlinearity. We have demonstrated intensity modulation of light with light in
a silicon-polymer integrated waveguide device, based on the all-optical Kerr
effect - the same ultrafast effect used in four-wave mixing. Direct
measurements of time-domain intensity modulation are made at speeds of 10 GHz.
We showed experimentally that the ultrafast mechanism of this modulation
functions at the optical frequency through spectral measurements, and that
intensity modulation at frequencies in excess of 1 THz can be obtained in this
device. By integrating optical polymers through evanescent coupling to
high-mode-confinement silicon waveguides, we greatly increase the effective
nonlinearity of the waveguide for cross-phase modulation. The combination of
high mode confinement, multiple integrated optical components, and high
nonlinearities produces all-optical ultrafast devices operating at
continuous-wave power levels compatible with telecommunication systems.
Although far from commercial radio frequency optical modulator standards in
terms of extinction, these devices are a first step in development of
large-scale integrated ultrafast optical logic in silicon, and are two orders
of magnitude faster than previously reported silicon devices.Comment: Under consideration at Nature Material
Silicon optical modulators
Optical technology is poised to revolutionise short reach interconnects. The leading candidate technology is silicon photonics, and the workhorse of such interconnect is the optical modulator. Modulators have been improved dramatically in recent years. Most notably the bandwidth has increased from the MHz to the multi GHz regime in little more than half a decade. However, the demands of optical interconnect are significant, and many questions remain unanswered as to whether silicon can meet the required performance metrics. Minimising metrics such as the energy per bit, and device footprint, whilst maximising bandwidth and modulation depth are non trivial demands. All of this must be achieved with acceptable thermal tolerance and optical spectral width, using CMOS compatible fabrication processes. Here we discuss the techniques that have, and will, be used to implement silicon optical modulators, as well as the outlook for these devices, and the candidate solutions of the future
Integrated GHz silicon photonic interconnect with micrometer-scale modulators and detectors
We report an optical link on silicon using micrometer-scale ring-resonator
enhanced silicon modulators and waveguide-integrated germanium photodetectors.
We show 3 Gbps operation of the link with 0.5 V modulator voltage swing and 1.0
V detector bias. The total energy consumption for such a link is estimated to
be ~120 fJ/bit. Such compact and low power monolithic link is an essential step
towards large-scale on-chip optical interconnects for future microprocessors
Broadband energy-efficient optical modulation by hybrid integration of silicon nanophotonics and organic electro-optic polymer
Silicon-organic hybrid integrated devices have emerging applications ranging
from high-speed optical interconnects to photonic electromagnetic-field
sensors. Silicon slot photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) filled with
electro-optic (EO) polymers combine the slow-light effect in PCWs with the high
polarizability of EO polymers, which promises the realization of
high-performance optical modulators. In this paper, a broadband,
power-efficient, low-dispersion, and compact optical modulator based on an EO
polymer filled silicon slot PCW is presented. A small voltage-length product of
V{\pi}*L=0.282Vmm is achieved, corresponding to an unprecedented record-high
effective in-device EO coefficient (r33) of 1230pm/V. Assisted by a backside
gate voltage, the modulation response up to 50GHz is observed, with a 3-dB
bandwidth of 15GHz, and the estimated energy consumption is 94.4fJ/bit at
10Gbit/s. Furthermore, lattice-shifted PCWs are utilized to enhance the optical
bandwidth by a factor of ~10X over other modulators based on
non-band-engineered PCWs and ring-resonators.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, SPIE Photonics West Conference 201
Silicon-organic hybrid electro-optical devices
Organic materials combined with strongly guiding silicon waveguides open the route to highly efficient electro-optical devices. Modulators based on the so-called silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) platform have only recently shown frequency responses up to 100 GHz, high-speed operation beyond 112 Gbit/s with fJ/bit power consumption. In this paper, we review the SOH platform and discuss important devices such as Mach-Zehnder and IQ-modulators based on the linear electro-optic effect. We further show liquid-crystal phase-shifters with a voltage-length product as low as V pi L = 0.06 V.mm and sub-mu W power consumption as required for slow optical switching or tuning optical filters and devices
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