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High-speed plasmonic phase modulators

Nature Photonics volume 8, pages 229–233 (2014)Cite this article

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Abstract

To keep pace with the demands in optical communications, electro-optic modulators should feature large bandwidths, operate across all telecommunication windows, offer a small footprint, and allow for CMOS-compatible fabrication to keep costs low1. Here, we demonstrate a new ultra-compact plasmonic phase modulator based on the Pockels effect in a nonlinear polymer. The device has a length of only 29 µm and operates at 40 Gbit s−1. Its modulation frequency response is flat up to 65 GHz and beyond. The modulator has been tested to work across a 120-nm-wide wavelength range centred at 1,550 nm, and is expected to work beyond this range. Its operation has been verified for temperatures up to 85 °C and it is easy to fabricate. To the best of our knowledge, this is the most compact high-speed phase modulator demonstrated to date.

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Figure 1: PPM and field distributions.
Figure 2: Characteristics of fabricated PPMs.
Figure 3: Measured performance of the PPMs.
Figure 4: Modulation experiments with the 1stG PPM.
Figure 5: Modulation experiments with the 2ndG PPM.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support from EU research projects NAVOLCHI and SOFI, the Helmholtz International Research School for Teratronics (HIRST), the Karlsruhe School of Optics & Photonics (KSOP), the Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN), the German Research Foundation (DFG) and Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMF). Silicon-on-insulator waveguides were fabricated by IMEC in the framework of ePIXfab.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institutes IPQ & IMT, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Karlsruhe, D-76131, Germany

    A. Melikyan, L. Alloatti, A. Muslija, P. C. Schindler, J. Li, R. Palmer, D. Korn, S. Muehlbrandt, M. Sommer, C. Koos, M. Kohl, W. Freude & J. Leuthold

  2. Institute of Electromagnetic Fields, ETH Zurich, Zurich, 8092, Switzerland

    D. Hillerkuss & J. Leuthold

  3. Photonics Research Group, Ghent University-IMEC, Gent, 9000, Belgium

    D. Van Thourhout

  4. GigOptix Inc., Zurich, 8008, Switzerland

    B. Chen & R. Dinu

  5. GigOptix Inc., Bothell, 98011, Washington, USA

    R. Dinu

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  1. A. Melikyan
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Contributions

A.Me. developed the concept, designed and fabricated the modulators, performed the experiments, analysed the data and wrote the paper. L.A. built the poling equipment, and developed the poling procedure and the experimental method to estimate the modulation index. D.H., P.C.S., J.L. and R.P. performed the experiments. D.K. helped in designing the passive silicon platform. B.C. and R.D. developed and synthesized the M3 nonlinear polymer. A.Mu., D.V.T. and M.S. provided support in fabrication. M.K., C.K., W.F. and J.L. developed the concept, designed the experiment and wrote the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to A. Melikyan, W. Freude or J. Leuthold.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Melikyan, A., Alloatti, L., Muslija, A. et al. High-speed plasmonic phase modulators. Nature Photon 8, 229–233 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.9

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