Introduction

The invention concerns an electro-optical modulator, wherein a band-edge slow light in silicon waveguide gratings is applied to Mach-Zehnder modulators based on the plasma dispersion effect, reaching improved modulation efficiency and reduced energy dissipation.

The present invention allows production of slow-light modulators for silicon photonics with reduced energy dissipation.

Technical features

The invention is based on an interleaved p-n junction with the same periodicity as the silicon waveguide grating is used, in order to achieve optimal matching between the electromagnetic field profile and the depletion regions of the p-n junction. The resulting modulation efficiency is strongly improved as compared to common modulators based on normal rib waveguides, even in a bandwidth of 20-30 nm near the band edge, while the total insertion loss due to free carriers is not increased.

Possible Applications

• Telecommunication networks;
• Electro-optical conversion of information in datacenters.

Advantages

• Strongly improved modulation efficiency in a bandwidth up to 20–30 nm;
• Increased slow-light modulator bandwidth;
• Reduced loss of the slow-light structure relative to a lateral p-n junction;
• Improved efficiency and reduced free-carrier induced insertion losses.