100 GHz silicon–organic hybrid modulator

作     者：Luca Alloatti Robert Palmer Sebastian Diebold Kai Philipp Pahl Baoquan Chen Raluca Dinu Maryse Fournier Jean-Marc Fedeli Thomas Zwick Wolfgang Freude Christian Koos Juerg Leuthold 

作者机构：Institutes IPQ and IMTKarlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT)76131 KarlsruheGermany Institute IHEKarlsruhe Institute of Technology(KIT)76131 KarlsruheGermany GigOptix Inc.BothellWAUSA CEALeti38054 GrenobleFrance Institute of Photonic SystemsSwiss Federal Institute of 

出 版 物：《Light(Science & Applications)》 (光（科学与应用)（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2014年第3卷第1期

页      面：196-199页

核心收录：

学科分类：0808[工学-电气工程] 0809[工学-电子科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 08[工学] 0805[工学-材料科学与工程（可授工学、理学学位）] 0702[理学-物理学] 

基　　金：We acknowledge support by the DFG Center for Functional Nanostructures the Helmholtz International Research School of Teratronics the Karlsruhe School of Optics and Photonics the EU-FP7 projects SOFI(grant 248609)and EURO-FOS(grant 224402) the BMBF joint project MISTRAL,which is funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research under grant 01BL0804 and the European Research Council(ERC Starting Grant‘EnTeraPIC’,number 280145). 

主　　题：100GHz high-speed silicon modulator nanophotonics silicon–organic hybrid 

摘      要：Electro-optic modulation at frequencies of 100 GHz and beyond is important for photonic-electronic signal processing at the highest speeds.To date,however,only a small number of devices exist that can operate up to this frequency.In this study,we demonstrate that this frequency range can be addressed by nanophotonic,silicon-based modulators.We exploit the ultrafast Pockels effect by using the silicon–organic hybrid(SOH)platform,which combines highly nonlinear organic molecules with silicon waveguides.Until now,the bandwidth of these devices was limited by the losses of the radiofrequency(RF)signal and the RC(resistor-capacitor)time constant of the silicon structure.The RF losses are overcome by using a device as short as 500 μm,and the RC time constant is decreased by using a highly conductive electron accumulation layer and an improved gate insulator.Using this method,we demonstrate for the first time an integrated silicon modulator with a 3dB bandwidth at an operating frequency beyond 100 GHz.Our results clearly indicate that the RC time constant is not a fundamental speed limitation of SOH devices at these frequencies.Our device has a voltage–length product of only V_(π)L=11 V mm,which compares favorably with the best silicon-photonic modulators available today.Using cladding materials with stronger nonlinearities,the voltage–length product is expected to improve by more than an order of magnitude.