title: Graphene-assisted critically-coupled optical ring modulator.
abstract: Graphene's conductivity at optical frequencies can be varied upon injection of carriers. In the present paper, this effect is used to modulate losses of an optical wave traveling inside a ring cavity. This way an optical modulator based on the critical-coupling concept first introduced by Yariv can be realized. Through numerical simulations, we show that a modulator featuring a bandwidth as large as 100 GHz can be designed with switching energy in the order of few fJ per bit. Also, we show that operations with driving voltages below 1.2 volt could be obtained, thus making the proposed modulator compatible with requirements of low-voltage CMOS technology.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Ingegneria Elettrica Gestionale e Meccanica, Università degli Studi di Udine, 33100 Udine, Italy. midrio@uniud.it
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Midrio
authors.forename: Stefano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Boscolo
authors.forename: Michele
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Moresco
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Romagnoli
authors.forename: Costantino
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: De Angelis
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Locatelli
authors.forename: Antonio-Daniele
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Capobianco
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006108:Graphite / Q000737:chemistry*; D012666:Semiconductors; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D006108:Graphite