Electro-optical effect in hydrogenated amorphous silicon-based waveguide-integrated p-i-p and p-i-n configurations

Abstract

A p-i-p configuration of an electro-optical modulator based on hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) is characterized and compared with an a-Si:H based p-i-n modulator. In particular, we estimate the performances in terms of optical losses, voltage-length product, and bandwidth at λ ¼ 1550 nm for waveguide-integrated p-i-p versus p-i-n configurations. Both devices are fabricated on a silicon substrate by plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition at low temperature ensuring the back-end integration with a CMOS microchip. We demonstrate a factor of merit for the p-i-p waveguide integrated Fabry-Perot resonator of V π × Lπ ¼ 19 V × cm allowing the design of shorter devices with respect to p-i-n structure.

Efficient Modulation of 1.55 μm Radiation with Gated Graphene on a Silicon Microring Resonator

“…It has a small footprint, large extinction ratios, , and a very high quality factor, , and is suitable for large-scale optical interconnections, providing a good platform for integrating graphene. Even with a single atomic layer, graphene can exhibit strong light-matter interaction , and have a significant effect on the resonator due to the great tunability of the Fermi level. We developed a highly efficient electro-optic modulator with a modulation depth of about 40%, which will be useful in large-scale on-chip optical interconnects for optical communications, logic computing, and sensing.…”

Progress towards a high-performing a-Si:H-based electro-optic modulator

“…Hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) has also recently emerged as a useful material for realizing minimallyinvasive on-chip passive [10,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22] and active [13,[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32] devices by depositing vertically stacked layers. a-Si:H shows interesting features which make it attractive for lightwave applications, like for example a high refractive index, transparency at the telecommunication wavelengths of 1300 and 1550 nm and, in general, a wide tunability of the optical characteristics easily obtainable by adjusting the deposition parameters [33].…”