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arXiv · 2405.18717

Silicon-integrated scandium-doped aluminum nitride electro-optic modulator

Tianqi Xu·Yushuai Liu·Yuanmao Pu·Yongxiang Yang·Qize Zhong·Xingyan Zhao·Yang Qiu·Yuan Dong·Tao Wu·Shaonan Zheng·Ting Hu
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Abstract

Scandium-doped aluminum nitride (AlScN) with an asymmetric hexagonal wurtzite structure exhibits enhanced second-order nonlinear and piezoelectric properties compared to aluminum nitride (AlN), while maintaining a relatively large bandgap. It provides a promising platform for photonic integration and facilitates the seamless integration of passive and active functional devices. Here, we present the design, fabrication, and characterization of AlScN EO micro-ring modulators, introducing active functionalities to the chip-scale AlScN platform. These waveguide-integrated EO modulators employ sputtered AlScN thin films as the light-guiding medium, and the entire fabrication process is compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. We characterize the high-frequency performance of an AlScN modulator for the first time, extracting a maximum in-device effective EO coefficient of 2.86 pm/V at 12 GHz. The devices show a minimum half-wave voltage-length product of 3.12 V*cm and a 3-dB modulation bandwidth of approximately 22 GHz. Our work provides a promising modulation scheme for cost-effective silicon-integrated photonics systems.

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Tianqi Xu, Yushuai Liu, Yuanmao Pu, Yongxiang Yang, Qize Zhong, Xingyan Zhao, Yang Qiu, Yuan Dong, Tao Wu, Shaonan Zheng, Ting Hu. 2024-05-29. Silicon-integrated scandium-doped aluminum nitride electro-optic modulator. https://arxiv.org/abs/2405.18717

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