Compact and fast photonic crystal 
silicon optical modulators

Abstract

We demonstrate the first sub-100 μm silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators (MZMs) that operate at >10 Gb/s, by exploiting low-dispersion slow-light in lattice-shifted photonic crystal waveguides (LSPCWs). We use two LSPCW-MZM structures, one with LSPCWs in both arms of the MZM, and the other with an LSPCW in only one of the arms. Using the first structure we demonstrate 10 Gb/s operation with a operating bandwidth of 12.5 nm, in a device with a phase-shifter length of only 50 μm. Using the second structure, owing to a larger group index as well as lower spectral noise, we demonstrate 40 Gb/s operation with a phase-shifter length of only 90 μm, which is more than an order-of-magnitude shorter than most 40 Gb/s MZMs.

Plasmonic-organic hybrid (POH) modulators for OOK and BPSK signaling at 40 Gbit/s

“…Compact integrated modulators are commonly realized on the silicon photonic platform using resonant structures such as ring or disk resonators, or as photonic crystals [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. These devices exploit resonant enhancement of the light-matter interaction to enable compact implementations and low driving voltages.…”

“…Moreover, these devices do not open an easy route to advanced modulation formats such as quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) [12]. As an alternative, photonic crystal (PC) modulators [8,10,11] can be used, allowing lengths of down to 50 µm [8]. However, PC based modulators usually occupy larger chip areas than ring-resonator modulators due to the large transverse dimensions of the PC sections.…”

Self-aligned silicon ring resonator optical modulator with focused ion beam error correction

“…Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZI) are commonly used due to their robustness to fabrication tolerances, wide optical bandwidth and thermal insensitivity. On the other hand the interaction length required usually results in large devices, with a large power consumption unless slow light techniques are employed such as in [4][5]. In contrast, phase modulators incorporated into resonant structures such as ring resonators can be very compact and consume relatively little power [6].…”

Sensitivity improvement of broadband electro-optic polymer-based optical phase modulator using 1D and 2D photonic crystal structures

“…The ability to slow down the light passing through a modulator allows for a reduced group velocity, as the lightwave is traveling through the material. The slow lightwave in PhC materials enhances the in-device phase shifts and creates an even more efficient phase modulation [14] . Modulators using PhC materials have been explored using a combination of ceramic-air materials [15] as well as ceramic-EO polymer PhC structures [16] .…”