Compact 1D-silicon photonic crystal electro-optic modulator operating with ultra-low switching voltage and energy.
We demonstrate a small foot print (600 nm wide) 1D silicon photonic crystal electro-optic modulator operating with only a 50 mV swing voltage and 0.1 fJ/bit switching energy at GHz speeds, which are the lowest values ever reported for a silicon electro-optic modulator. A 3 dB extinction ratio is demonstrated with an ultra-low 50 mV swing voltage with a total device energy consumption of 42.8 fJ/bit, which is dominated by the state holding energy. The total energy consumption is reduced to 14.65 fJ/bit for a 300 mV swing voltage while still keeping the switching energy at less than 2 fJ/bit. Under optimum voltage conditions, the device operates with a maximum speed of 3 Gbps with 8 dB extinction ratio, which rises to 11 dB for a 1 Gbps modulation speed.
Abdul
A
Shakoor
Kengo
K
Nozaki
Eiichi
E
Kuramochi
Katsuhiko
K
Nishiguchi
Akihiko
A
Shinya
Masaya
M
Notomi
D003460:Crystallization; D025802:Electric Capacitance; D004560:Electricity; D004581:Electronics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D055096:Optical Devices; D017785:Photons; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis; D013816:Thermodynamics; D013997:Time Factors
D012825:Silicon