Abstract

Silicon slot waveguide based Mach–Zehnder interferometric modulators with electrooptic polymers in the slot have the advantage of low half-wave voltage-length product (V_π*L). Several key aspects of this unconventional electrooptic polymer modulator design to optimize the modulator performance are studied in this work. Both computer simulation and experiments have been conducted to understand the relationship between modulator performance such as modulation efficiency, optical loss and the waveguide design parameters. Techniques to achieve efficient poling of electrooptic polymers in the silicon slot waveguide have been developed. The doping of the silicon to enhance conductivity for efficient poling and the trade-off between conductivity and optical loss are experimentally investigated. Surface passivation of silicon nanophotonic structures has been found to be effective in improving poling efficiency. By applying these techniques to a silicon slot waveguide Mach–Zehnder modulator, a low V_π*L of 0.52 V·cm has been achieved. Finally travelling wave electrode designs have been evaluated and the results show that the bandwidth is mainly limited by the attenuation of the radio frequency signal in the electrode and a standard coplanar waveguide electrode design is able to reach 20 GHz in modulators of silicon slot waveguide embedded in electrooptic polymer.

© 2011 IEEE

Plate-slot polymer waveguide modulator on silicon-on-insulator

Feng Qiu, Andrew. M. Spring, Jianxun Hong, and Shiyoshi Yokoyama
Opt. Express 26(9) 11213-11221 (2018)

Efficient silicon and side-cladding waveguide modulator with electro-optic polymer

Jiawei Mao, Hiromu Sato, Alisa Bannaron, Jianxun Hong, Guo-Wei Lu, and Shiyoshi Yokoyama
Opt. Express 30(2) 1885-1895 (2022)

Enhanced conductivity of sol-gel silica cladding for efficient poling in electro-optic polymer/TiO₂ vertical slot waveguide modulators

Yasufumi Enami, Youssef Jouane, Jingdong Luo, and Alex K-Y. Jen
Opt. Express 22(24) 30191-30199 (2014)

One-dimensional photonic crystal slot waveguide for silicon-organic hybrid electro-optic modulators

Hai Yan, Xiaochuan Xu, Chi-Jui Chung, Harish Subbaraman, Zeyu Pan, Swapnajit Chakravarty, and Ray T. Chen
Opt. Lett. 41(23) 5466-5469 (2016)

Wide optical spectrum range, subvolt, compact modulator based on an electro-optic polymer refilled silicon slot photonic crystal waveguide

Xingyu Zhang, Amir Hosseini, Swapnajit Chakravarty, Jingdong Luo, Alex K.-Y. Jen, and Ray T. Chen
Opt. Lett. 38(22) 4931-4934 (2013)