title: 50-Gb/s silicon optical modulator with traveling-wave electrodes.
abstract: We demonstrate silicon Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) optical modulator with 50.1-Gb/s data rate and 5.56 dB dynamic extinction ratios. The phase shifter is composed by a 4 mm-long reverse-biased p-n junction with a modulation efficiency (V(π) · L(π)) of ~26.7 V · mm and phase shifter loss of ~1.04 dB/mm at V(bias) = -6 V. The measured electro-optic bandwidth reaches 25.6 GHz at V(bias) = -5 V. Compensation doping method and low loss traveling-wave electrodes are utilized to improve the modulator performance. Measurement result demonstrates that reasonable choosing of working point and doping profile of the silicon optical modulator is critical in order to match the performance requirement of the real application.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microelectronics, Agency for Science, Technology and Research, 11 Science Park Road, Singapore Science Park II, 117685, Singapore.
authors.forename: Xiaoguang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Tu
authors.forename: Tsung-Yang
authors.initials: TY
authors.lastname: Liow
authors.forename: Junfeng
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Xianshu
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Luo
authors.forename: Qing
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Fang
authors.forename: Mingbin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Guo-Qiang
authors.initials: GQ
authors.lastname: Lo
mesh_terms: D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007368:Interferometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012666:Semiconductors; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*