Ultra-Compact Terabit Plasmonic Modulator Array

Abstract

A new plasmonic transmitter solution offering 0.8 Tbit/s on an ultra-compact 90 µm × 5.5 µm footprint is introduced. It comprises a densely arranged four-channel plasmonic phase modulator array that directly interconnects an optical fiber array. Each plasmonic modulator features high-index grating couplers-for direct and efficient conversion from a fiber mode to a plasmonic slot mode and vice versa-and a plasmonic waveguide-for efficient high-speed modulation. The individual devices achieve data rates of 200 Gbit/s with a symbol rate of 100 GBd. Electrical and optical crosstalk between neighboring modulators were found to have no significant influence on the data modulation experiment. The modulator array has been tested in a 100 GBd experiment with signals at a single wavelength (mimicking a space division multiplexing scheme) and at different wavelengths (mimicking a wavelength division multiplexing experiment).

Ultra-High-Speed 2:1 Digital Selector and Plasmonic Modulator IM/DD Transmitter Operating at 222 GBaud for Intra-Datacenter Applications

“…By integrating the PPMs in a SiP Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration, the phase modulation is translated into an amplitude or intensity modulation. These MZMs [36] can be used for radio-over-fiber applications and THz communication [29], [37], 200 Gbit/s intensity modulation [21] , 120 GBd IM with sub-1V pp driving electronics [20] as well as highly spatially parallelized modulator arrays for space-division multiplexing (SDM) and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) applications [38], [39].…”

High-temperature-resistant silicon-polymer hybrid modulator operating at up to 200 Gbit s−1 for energy-efficient datacentres and harsh-environment applications

“…In contrast, with device architectures based on a silicon slot waveguide 34 , 35 , 52 , 53 or a metal–insulator–metal plasmonic slot waveguide 23 – 28 , which are deployed in SOH and POH modulators, both optical and electrical fields could be tightly confined into nanoscopic dimensions with enhanced nonlinearities and concentrated electrical field, thereby reducing the π-voltage–length product in EO modulators, and shrinking the footprint to sub-millimetre 54 , 55 or micrometre 23 – 28 scales. The waveguide architecture of our device could be further optimized to realize a more compact footprint, which is of utmost importance in view of future ultra-dense high-speed parallelized interconnects to facilitate dense modulator arrays 56 , 57 for space-division multiplexing applications, and enable advanced complex modulations on a more compact footprint for coherent communications 45 , 58 . Besides, the synthesized side-chain EO polymer could be overlaid on the waveguide core as a cladding material to counterbalance the core’s TO coefficient, yielding athermal and high-speed MRRs with ultra-compact footprints 49 , 50 .…”

Compact and ultra-efficient broadband plasmonic terahertz field detector

“…Using state-of-the-art silicon foundry coupling schemes would reduce the out-coupling losses by 10 dB 44 . Also, plasmonic losses of 3 dB for a 5 μm long device is possible 45 . Second, higher optical powers would be a solution to further increase the dynamical range.…”