A compact depletion mode silicon modulator based on a photonic hybrid-lattice mode-gap resonator

Abstract

A high speed silicon electro-optic modulator is proposed based on a hybrid-lattice mode-gap resonator. The device surface area is only 10 μm by 4.5 μm and both injection and depletion mode operation have been studied. Our full 3D optical and electrical numerical result shows the device is capable of a modulation speed of 238 Gb/s at a 10 dB extinction ratio when it is operated in the depletion mode by an embedded P+PNN+ diode. More importantly its energy consumption is ultra-low at 26.6 fJ per bit. The fabricated hybrid-lattice resonator demonstrates a resonance peak around 1600 nm with quality factor ∼7800, which agrees well with the optical numerical results from 3D FDTD methods. The dynamic characterization of the device is still in progress. The compact device dimension and ultra-low energy consumption are favorable to high density photonic integration.