arXiv · 1709.06338
Ultra-High Electro-Optic Activity Demonstrated in a Silicon-Organic Hybrid (SOH) Modulator
Abstract
Efficient electro-optic (EO) modulators crucially rely on advanced materials that exhibit strong electro-optic activity and that can be integrated into high-speed and efficient phase shifter structures. In this paper, we demonstrate ultra-high in-device EO figures of merit of up to n3r33 = 2300 pm/V achieved in a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) using the EO chromophore JRD1. This is the highest material-related in-device EO figure of merit hitherto achieved in a high-speed modulator at any operating wavelength. The π-voltage of the 1.5 mm-long device amounts to 210 mV, leading to a voltage-length product of UπL = 320 Vμm - the lowest value reported for MZM that are based on low-loss dielectric waveguides. The viability of the devices is demonstrated by generating high-quality on-off-keying (OOK) signals at 40 Gbit/s with Q factors in excess of 8 at a drive voltage as low as 140 mVpp. We expect that efficient high-speed EO modulators will not only have major impact in the field of optical communications, but will also open new avenues towards ultra-fast photonic-electronic signal processing.
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Clemens Kieninger, Yasar Kutuvantavida, Delwin L. Elder, Stefan Wolf, Heiner Zwickel, Matthias Blaicher, Juned N. Kemal, Matthias Lauermann, Sebastian Randel, Wolfgang Freude, Larry R. Dalton, Christian Koos. 2018-04-23. Ultra-High Electro-Optic Activity Demonstrated in a Silicon-Organic Hybrid (SOH) Modulator. https://doi.org/10.1364/optica.5.000739
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