Silicon-organic hybrid devices

Abstract

Silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) devices combine silicon waveguides with a number of specialized materials, ranging from third-order optically-nonlinear molecules to second-order nonlinear polymers and liquid-crystals. Second-order nonlinear materials allow building high-speed and low-voltage electro-optic modulators, which are key components for future silicon-based photonics transceivers. We report on a 90 GHz bandwidth phase modulator, and on a 56 Gbit/s QPSK experiment using an IQ Pockels effect modulator. By using liquid-crystal claddings instead, we show experimentally that phase shifters with record-low power consumption and ultra-low voltage-length product of V π L = 0.06 Vmm. Secondorder nonlinear materials, moreover, allow creating nonlinear waveguides for sum-or difference-frequency generation, and for lowest-noise optical parametric amplification. These processes are exploited for a large variety of applications, like in the emerging field of on-chip generation of mid-IR wavelengths, where pump powers are significantly smaller compared to equivalent devices using third-order nonlinear materials. In this work, we present the first SOH waveguide design suited for second-order nonlinear processes. We predict for our device an amplification of 14 dB/cm assuming a conservative χ (2) -nonlinearity of 230 pm/V and a CW pump power as low as 20 dBm.

Silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) technology: A platform for efficient electro-optical devices

“…This leads to an increase of the effective refractive index of the quasi-TE mode and hence to a phase shift. For a device Optical MEMS and Nanophotonics 2013, Kanazawa, Japan, 18-22 August 2013 length of 1.7 mm, we achieve an overall phase shift of approximately 80  when applying a voltage of 4 V [13]. This corresponds to an average voltage-length product of U π L = 0.085 Vmm, which is, to the best of our knowledge, the smallest value reported so far in a silicon-based device.…”

“…The viability of SOH electro-optic modulators has been demonstrated in various experiments, Figure 2. A short device of only 500 µm length overcomes speed limitations by RF propagation loss and enables 3 dB-bandwidths of more than 100 GHz, Figure 2 (a) [13]. SOH modulators were used for data transmission with conventional on-off-keying at speeds of up to 40 Gbit/s, Figure 2 (b) and (c), and with binary phase shift keying (BPSK) and bipolar amplitude shift keying (ASK) at symbol rates of 40 GBd and 28 GBd, resulting in data rates of up to 84 Gbit/s, Figure 2 (d), (e), (f), [11].…”

Silicon-Organic Hybrid Electro-Optical Devices

“…The maximum electrical amplitude is 4 V. The maximum phase shift achieved is about 80 π. The device length is 1.7 mm [67]. coefficient of silicon is exploited to induce a phase shift by locally increasing the temperature [65].…”

“…In this section we report on a phase shifter with a record-small voltage-length product of V π L = 0.06 V·mm [67]. This is obtained by combining liquid crystals with slot-waveguides built on the SOH platform [20].…”

Ultra-compact broadband nanowire-to-slot waveguide mode converter based on SOI

“…In recent years, a new silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) platform which combines the advantages of silicon with good performance of organic materials comes out and attracts more and more attention [7] . Furthermore, the slot waveguide acts as a vital component.…”