title: Electronic band-gap modified passive silicon optical modulator at telecommunications wavelengths.
abstract: The silicon optical modulator is considered to be the workhorse of a revolution in communications. In recent years, the capabilities of externally driven active silicon optical modulators have dramatically improved. Self-driven passive modulators, especially passive silicon modulators, possess advantages in compactness, integration, low-cost, etc. Constrained by a large indirect band-gap and sensitivity-related loss, the passive silicon optical modulator is scarce and has been not advancing, especially at telecommunications wavelengths. Here, a passive silicon optical modulator is fabricated by introducing an impurity band in the electronic band-gap, and its nonlinear optics and applications in the telecommunications-wavelength lasers are investigated. The saturable absorption properties at the wavelength of 1.55 μm was measured and indicates that the sample is quite sensitive to light intensity and has negligible absorption loss. With a passive silicon modulator, pulsed lasers were constructed at wavelengths at 1.34 and 1.42 μm. It is concluded that the sensitive self-driven passive silicon optical modulator is a viable candidate for photonics applications out to 2.5 μm.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Haohai
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Huaijin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: School of Physics, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Xiangdong
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Qingming
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Crystal Materials and Institute of Crystal Materials, Shandong University, Jinan 250100, China.
authors.forename: Jiyang
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang