Compact and fast photonic crystal  silicon optical modulators

doi:10.1364/OE.20.022465

Compact and fast photonic crystal  silicon optical modulators

Hong C. Nguyen, Satoshi Hashimoto, Mizuki Shinkawa, and Toshihiko Baba »View Author Affiliations

Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 20, pp. 22465-22474 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.022465

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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.

OCIS Codes
(130.0250) Integrated optics : Optoelectronics
(130.5296) Integrated optics : Photonic crystal waveguides

ToC Category:
Integrated Optics

History
Original Manuscript: July 24, 2012
Revised Manuscript: September 9, 2012
Manuscript Accepted: September 12, 2012
Published: September 17, 2012

Citation
Hong C. Nguyen, Satoshi Hashimoto, Mizuki Shinkawa, and Toshihiko Baba, "Compact and fast photonic crystal  silicon optical modulators," Opt. Express 20, 22465-22474 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-20-20-22465

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References

G. T. Reed, G. Mashanovich, F. Y. Gardes, and D. J. Thomson, “Silicon optical modulators,” Nat. Photonics4(8), 518–526 (2010). [CrossRef]
W. M. J. Green, M. J. Rooks, L. Sekaric, and Y. A. Vlasov, “Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” Opt. Express15(25), 17106–17113 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
S. Akiyama, T. Baba, M. Imai, T. Akagawa, M. Takahashi, N. Hirayama, H. Takahashi, Y. Noguchi, H. Okayama, T. Horikawa, and T. Usuki, “12.5-Gb/s operation with 0.29-V·cm V(π)L using silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator based-on forward-biased pin diode,” Opt. Express20(3), 2911–2923 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
L. Liao, A. Liu, D. Rubin, J. Basak, Y. Chetrit, H. Nguyen, R. Cohen, N. Izhaky, and M. Paniccia, “40 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator for highspeed applications,” Electron. Lett.43(22), 1196–1197 (2007). [CrossRef]
D. J. Thomson, F. Y. Gardes, J. M. Fedeli, S. Zlatanovic, H. Youfang, B. P. P. Kuo, E. Myslivets, N. Alic, S. Radic, G. Z. Mashanovich, and G. T. Reed, “50-Gb/s silicon optical modulator,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.24(4), 234–236 (2012). [CrossRef]
M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, G. Rasigade, J. M. Fédéli, P. Crozat, E. Cassan, D. Bouville, and L. Vivien, “40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulator based on a pipin diode,” Opt. Express20(10), 10591–10596 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
P. Dong, L. Chen, and Y. K. Chen, “High-speed low-voltage single-drive push-pull silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators,” Opt. Express20(6), 6163–6169 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
H. Yu, M. Pantouvaki, J. Van Campenhout, D. Korn, K. Komorowska, P. Dumon, Y. L. Li, P. Verheyen, P. Absil, L. Alloatti, D. Hillerkuss, J. Leuthold, R. Baets, and W. Bogaerts, “Performance tradeoff between lateral and interdigitated doping patterns for high speed carrier-depletion based silicon modulators,” Opt. Express20(12), 12926–12938 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
M. R. Watts, W. A. Zortman, D. C. Trotter, R. W. Young, and A. L. Lentine, “Low-voltage, compact, depletion-mode, silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 159–164 (2010). [CrossRef]
H. C. Nguyen, Y. Sakai, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “10 Gb/s operation of photonic crystal silicon optical modulators,” Opt. Express19(14), 13000–13007 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
H. C. Nguyen, Y. Sakai, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “Photonic crystal silicon optical modulators: carrier-injection and depletion at 10 Gb/s,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.48(2), 210–220 (2012) (Invited Paper). [CrossRef]
M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, Y. Hama, K. Suzuki, and T. Baba, “Nonlinear enhancement in photonic crystal slow light waveguides fabricated using CMOS-compatible process,” Opt. Express19(22), 22208–22218 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
Y. Hamachi, S. Kubo, and T. Baba, “Slow light with low dispersion and nonlinear enhancement in a lattice-shifted photonic crystal waveguide,” Opt. Lett.34(7), 1072–1074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
A. Hosseini, X. C. Xu, H. Subbaraman, C. Y. Lin, S. Rahimi, and R. T. Chen, “Large optical spectral range dispersion engineered silicon-based photonic crystal waveguide modulator,” Opt. Express20(11), 12318–12325 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
A. Y. Petrov and M. Eich, “Zero dispersion at small group velocities in photonic crystal waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett.85(21), 4866–4868 (2004). [CrossRef]
J. Li, T. P. White, L. O’Faolain, A. Gomez-Iglesias, and T. F. Krauss, “Systematic design of flat band slow light in photonic crystal waveguides,” Opt. Express16(9), 6227–6232 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
T. Baba, “Slow light in photonic crystals,” Nat. Photonics2(8), 465–473 (2008). [CrossRef]
A. Brimont, D. J. Thomson, P. Sanchis, J. Herrera, F. Y. Gardes, J. M. Fedeli, G. T. Reed, and J. Martí, “High speed silicon electro-optical modulators enhanced via slow light propagation,” Opt. Express19(21), 20876–20885 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
S. Rahimi, A. Hosseini, X. C. Xu, H. Subbaraman, and R. T. Chen, “Group-index independent coupling to band engineered SOI photonic crystal waveguide with large slow-down factor,” Opt. Express19(22), 21832–21841 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
M. Spasenović, T. P. White, S. Ha, A. A. Sukhorukov, T. Kampfrath, Y. S. Kivshar, C. M. de Sterke, T. F. Krauss, and L. K. Kuipers, “Experimental observation of evanescent modes at the interface to slow-light photonic crystal waveguides,” Opt. Lett.36(7), 1170–1172 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
H. C. Nguyen, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “1.6 Vpp, 10 Gb/s Si photonic crystal optical modulators without RF termination,” in JSAP Spring Meeting, (Tokyo, Japan, 2012), pp. 18a-F14–18.
T. Y. Liow, K. W. Ang, Q. Fang, J. F. Song, Y. Z. Xiong, M. B. Yu, G. Q. Lo, and D. L. Kwong, “Silicon modulators and germanium photodetectors on SOI: monolithic integration, compatibility, and performance optimization,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 307–315 (2010). [CrossRef]
D. M. Gill, S. S. Patel, M. Rasras, K. Y. Tu, A. E. White, Y. K. Chen, A. Pomerene, D. Carothers, R. L. Kamocsai, C. M. Hill, and J. Beattie, “CMOS-compatible Si-ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer with internal bandwidth equalization,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 45–52 (2010). [CrossRef]
G. Rasigade, M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, J. M. Fédéli, F. Milesi, P. Grosse, D. Bouville, E. Cassan, and L. Vivien, “High extinction ratio 10 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator,” Opt. Express19(7), 5827–5832 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
L. Liao, D. Samara-Rubio, M. Morse, A. S. Liu, D. Hodge, D. Rubin, U. D. Keil, and T. Franck, “High speed silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” Opt. Express13(8), 3129–3135 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
A. M. Gutierrez, A. Brimont, G. Rasigade, M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, J. M. Fedeli, L. Vivien, J. Marti, and P. Sanchis, “Ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer silicon modulator for enhanced performance,” J. Lightwave Technol.30(1), 9–14 (2012). [CrossRef]
T. Baehr-Jones, R. Ding, Y. Liu, A. Ayazi, T. Pinguet, N. C. Harris, M. Streshinsky, P. Lee, Y. Zhang, A. E. J. Lim, T. Y. Liow, S. H. G. Teo, G. Q. Lo, and M. Hochberg, “Ultralow drive voltage silicon traveling-wave modulator,” Opt. Express20(11), 12014–12020 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
H. W. Chen, Y. H. Kuo, and J. E. Bowers, “25Gb/s hybrid silicon switch using a capacitively loaded traveling wave electrode,” Opt. Express18(2), 1070–1075 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

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[1] G. T. Reed, G. Mashanovich, F. Y. Gardes, and D. J. Thomson, “Silicon optical modulators,” Nat. Photonics4(8), 518–526 (2010). [CrossRef]

[2] W. M. J. Green, M. J. Rooks, L. Sekaric, and Y. A. Vlasov, “Ultra-compact, low RF power, 10 gb/s silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” Opt. Express15(25), 17106–17113 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[3] S. Akiyama, T. Baba, M. Imai, T. Akagawa, M. Takahashi, N. Hirayama, H. Takahashi, Y. Noguchi, H. Okayama, T. Horikawa, and T. Usuki, “12.5-Gb/s operation with 0.29-V·cm V(π)L using silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator based-on forward-biased pin diode,” Opt. Express20(3), 2911–2923 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[4] L. Liao, A. Liu, D. Rubin, J. Basak, Y. Chetrit, H. Nguyen, R. Cohen, N. Izhaky, and M. Paniccia, “40 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator for highspeed applications,” Electron. Lett.43(22), 1196–1197 (2007). [CrossRef]

[5] D. J. Thomson, F. Y. Gardes, J. M. Fedeli, S. Zlatanovic, H. Youfang, B. P. P. Kuo, E. Myslivets, N. Alic, S. Radic, G. Z. Mashanovich, and G. T. Reed, “50-Gb/s silicon optical modulator,” IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett.24(4), 234–236 (2012). [CrossRef]

[6] M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, G. Rasigade, J. M. Fédéli, P. Crozat, E. Cassan, D. Bouville, and L. Vivien, “40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulator based on a pipin diode,” Opt. Express20(10), 10591–10596 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[7] P. Dong, L. Chen, and Y. K. Chen, “High-speed low-voltage single-drive push-pull silicon Mach-Zehnder modulators,” Opt. Express20(6), 6163–6169 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[8] H. Yu, M. Pantouvaki, J. Van Campenhout, D. Korn, K. Komorowska, P. Dumon, Y. L. Li, P. Verheyen, P. Absil, L. Alloatti, D. Hillerkuss, J. Leuthold, R. Baets, and W. Bogaerts, “Performance tradeoff between lateral and interdigitated doping patterns for high speed carrier-depletion based silicon modulators,” Opt. Express20(12), 12926–12938 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[9] M. R. Watts, W. A. Zortman, D. C. Trotter, R. W. Young, and A. L. Lentine, “Low-voltage, compact, depletion-mode, silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 159–164 (2010). [CrossRef]

[10] H. C. Nguyen, Y. Sakai, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “10 Gb/s operation of photonic crystal silicon optical modulators,” Opt. Express19(14), 13000–13007 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[11] H. C. Nguyen, Y. Sakai, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “Photonic crystal silicon optical modulators: carrier-injection and depletion at 10 Gb/s,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron.48(2), 210–220 (2012) (Invited Paper). [CrossRef]

[12] M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, Y. Hama, K. Suzuki, and T. Baba, “Nonlinear enhancement in photonic crystal slow light waveguides fabricated using CMOS-compatible process,” Opt. Express19(22), 22208–22218 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[13] Y. Hamachi, S. Kubo, and T. Baba, “Slow light with low dispersion and nonlinear enhancement in a lattice-shifted photonic crystal waveguide,” Opt. Lett.34(7), 1072–1074 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[14] A. Hosseini, X. C. Xu, H. Subbaraman, C. Y. Lin, S. Rahimi, and R. T. Chen, “Large optical spectral range dispersion engineered silicon-based photonic crystal waveguide modulator,” Opt. Express20(11), 12318–12325 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[15] A. Y. Petrov and M. Eich, “Zero dispersion at small group velocities in photonic crystal waveguides,” Appl. Phys. Lett.85(21), 4866–4868 (2004). [CrossRef]

[16] J. Li, T. P. White, L. O’Faolain, A. Gomez-Iglesias, and T. F. Krauss, “Systematic design of flat band slow light in photonic crystal waveguides,” Opt. Express16(9), 6227–6232 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[17] T. Baba, “Slow light in photonic crystals,” Nat. Photonics2(8), 465–473 (2008). [CrossRef]

[18] A. Brimont, D. J. Thomson, P. Sanchis, J. Herrera, F. Y. Gardes, J. M. Fedeli, G. T. Reed, and J. Martí, “High speed silicon electro-optical modulators enhanced via slow light propagation,” Opt. Express19(21), 20876–20885 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[19] S. Rahimi, A. Hosseini, X. C. Xu, H. Subbaraman, and R. T. Chen, “Group-index independent coupling to band engineered SOI photonic crystal waveguide with large slow-down factor,” Opt. Express19(22), 21832–21841 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[20] M. Spasenović, T. P. White, S. Ha, A. A. Sukhorukov, T. Kampfrath, Y. S. Kivshar, C. M. de Sterke, T. F. Krauss, and L. K. Kuipers, “Experimental observation of evanescent modes at the interface to slow-light photonic crystal waveguides,” Opt. Lett.36(7), 1170–1172 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[21] H. C. Nguyen, M. Shinkawa, N. Ishikura, and T. Baba, “1.6 Vpp, 10 Gb/s Si photonic crystal optical modulators without RF termination,” in JSAP Spring Meeting, (Tokyo, Japan, 2012), pp. 18a-F14–18.

[22] T. Y. Liow, K. W. Ang, Q. Fang, J. F. Song, Y. Z. Xiong, M. B. Yu, G. Q. Lo, and D. L. Kwong, “Silicon modulators and germanium photodetectors on SOI: monolithic integration, compatibility, and performance optimization,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 307–315 (2010). [CrossRef]

[23] D. M. Gill, S. S. Patel, M. Rasras, K. Y. Tu, A. E. White, Y. K. Chen, A. Pomerene, D. Carothers, R. L. Kamocsai, C. M. Hill, and J. Beattie, “CMOS-compatible Si-ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer with internal bandwidth equalization,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron.16(1), 45–52 (2010). [CrossRef]

[24] G. Rasigade, M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, J. M. Fédéli, F. Milesi, P. Grosse, D. Bouville, E. Cassan, and L. Vivien, “High extinction ratio 10 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator,” Opt. Express19(7), 5827–5832 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[25] L. Liao, D. Samara-Rubio, M. Morse, A. S. Liu, D. Hodge, D. Rubin, U. D. Keil, and T. Franck, “High speed silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator,” Opt. Express13(8), 3129–3135 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[26] A. M. Gutierrez, A. Brimont, G. Rasigade, M. Ziebell, D. Marris-Morini, J. M. Fedeli, L. Vivien, J. Marti, and P. Sanchis, “Ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer silicon modulator for enhanced performance,” J. Lightwave Technol.30(1), 9–14 (2012). [CrossRef]

[27] T. Baehr-Jones, R. Ding, Y. Liu, A. Ayazi, T. Pinguet, N. C. Harris, M. Streshinsky, P. Lee, Y. Zhang, A. E. J. Lim, T. Y. Liow, S. H. G. Teo, G. Q. Lo, and M. Hochberg, “Ultralow drive voltage silicon traveling-wave modulator,” Opt. Express20(11), 12014–12020 (2012). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

[28] H. W. Chen, Y. H. Kuo, and J. E. Bowers, “25Gb/s hybrid silicon switch using a capacitively loaded traveling wave electrode,” Opt. Express18(2), 1070–1075 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

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Compact and fast photonic crystal  silicon optical modulators