Michelson interferometer modulator based on hybrid silicon and lithium niobate platform

Abstract

We propose and demonstrate a hybrid silicon and lithium niobate Michelson interferometer modulator (MIM) with a reduced half-wave voltage-length product compared to a Mach-Zehnder modulator. The modulator is based on seamless integration of a high-contrast waveguide based on lithium niobate—a widely used modulator material—with compact, low-loss silicon circuitry. The present device demonstrates a half-wave voltage-length product as low as 1.2 V cm and a low insertion loss of 3.3 dB. The 3 dB electro-optic bandwidth is approximately 17.5 GHz. The high-speed modulations are demonstrated at 32 Gbit/s and 40 Gbit/s with the extinction ratio of 8 dB and 6.6 dB, respectively. The present device avoids absorption loss and nonlinearity in conventional silicon modulators and demonstrates the lowest half-wave voltage-length product in lithium niobate modulators. The hybrid MIM demonstrates high-speed data modulation showing potential in future optical interconnects.

Synthesis of LN/Si Nanostructures Layer by LayerBased on Mach-Zehnder Modulator using Pulsed Laser Deposition

“…In this figure, we presented a picture for each layer, all presented images are equal in magnification size, also the deposition conditions were completely similar across all layers, it's clear that It appears that perfect distribution and the structure is smoother and more homogeneous for all presented layers, also we note the distribution of crystals are good balanced and the grain size is small and this enables us to use the deposited nanostructure layer by layer for optoelectronics and photonics devices as shown in Fig. 3 (b) and Table (1).…”

“…High performance electroptic modulation based on lithium Niobate LN EOMs had enormous studies underlies many important applications ranging from optical communication, microwave photonics, computing, frequency be commercially available due to their engaging features, low insertion loss, large modulation bandwidth, low drive voltage, enhanced linearity, consolidated foot-print and low effect of dispersion [1,2]. However, the conventional LiNbO3 modulators have a bulky size and modulation efficiency is low (Vπ.L > 10 V. cm [3], high manufacturing cost, the electric drive power that desired is high [4,5].…”

Rejuvenating a Versatile Photonic Material: Thin‐Film Lithium Niobate

“…One of the main advantages of this method is the ease of processing. Several materials have been pursued in this regard, such as tantalum pentoxide (Ta 2 O 5 ), [29] chalcogenide glass (ChG), [70] silicon nitride (SiN, Si 3 N 4 ), [41,71,72,81,85,100,101,124] and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ), [40] with reported propagation loss values as low as ∼1 dB cm −1 for plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition Figure 3a), [71] dry-etched ( Figure 3b), [75,78] and SOI-bonded ( Figure 3d) [76,77,80,84] methods, while for nonlinear devices, rib-loaded [100,101] and dry-etched [102,105] have been the most commonly employed platforms. In comparison to platforms (a)-(c), platform (d) requires additional bonding and TFLN substrate removal steps.…”

“…More recently, the same group has reported on a Michelson interferometer modulator on the same platform with 17.5-GHz BW, 30-dB ER, and a low V ⋅ L of 1.2 V.cm in 1-mmlong devices. [84] It is also worthwhile mentioning that there are only few work among TFLN EOMs, which report on linearity for analog applications. [69,71,80,85] Spurious-free dynamic range (SFDR) is a figure of merit for measuring the linearity of EOMs in microwave photonics.…”

“…In recent years, based on this rapidly-growing technology, a plethora of ultracompact integrated photonic devices and circuits, such as microdisk [59][60][61][62] and microring [46,[63][64][65][66] resonators, EO modulators, [67][68][69][70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85] acousto-optic modulators, [86][87][88][89] photodetector, [90] integrated single-photon detector, [91] grating couplers, [92][93][94][95][96] fiber-to-chip edge couplers, [97][98][99] wavelength Figure 2. Summary of the steps for fabrication of TFLN on Si wafers.…”