A Silicon-Polymer Hybrid Modulator—Design, Simulation and Proof of Principle

Abstract

Optimal dimensions are found for the silicon waveguide in an electro-optic (EO) polymer cladding-based silicon waveguide modulator. The confinement factor as well as the effective index of the mode are taken into account. The influence of the coplanar electrode spacing and electrode height on performance are examined and a figure of merit formula for choosing the optimal device geometry is shown. The design space for both 1550 nm and 1310 nm wavelengths is explored. With the optimal 275 nm waveguide width and 4 μm electrode spacing, a V π of a few volts can be achieved even with moderate r 33 EO polymers. Experimental results on a fabricated modulator are shown and compared with the predicted performance.

Low Loss Electro-Optic Polymer Based Fast Adaptive Phase Shifters Realized in Silicon Nitride and Oxynitride Waveguide Technology

“…In EO polymer cladding phase shifters the waveguide core is located between two electrodes. Because of the different electric properties of the waveguide core material and the EO polymer, the electric field around the waveguide core becomes inhomogeneous [13]. Local maxima and minima in the electric potential emerge.…”

“…Besides these devices, phase shifters can also be fabricated with a more simple fabrication process in the so-called "straightforward design". Thereby a rectangular waveguide core made from materials like silicon [13] or TiO 2 [14] is realized with a lateral electrode configuration as shown in Figure 1. The outstanding feature of silicon oxynitride (SiON) and silicon nitride (SiN) based planar optical waveguides is its ultra low loss.…”

Organic Electro-optic Materials and Devices: Molecular Engineering Driving Device Performance and Technology Innovation

“…It is also feasible to design and fabricate ultracompact modulators that can be easily integrated with silicon photonics [7]. Silicon is an increasingly important platform poised to revolutionize data center and computer interconnections the way that optical components such as amplifiers, dense wavelength division multiplexing filters, and wavelength-selective switches have transformed the fiber-optic core of the Internet.…”

Microdisk resonators for difference frequency generation in THz range

“…However, several recent developments have made possible a new approach to DFG. First, a very high value of second order nonlinearity is demonstrated in a polymer recently 18 . Since high resistive silicon are transparent to this THz regime, it can be used to guide the generated THz waves.…”