Premium
Broadband 10 Gb/s operation of graphene electro‐absorption modulator on silicon
Author(s) -
Hu Yingtao,
Pantouvaki Marianna,
Campenhout Joris,
Brems Steven,
Asselberghs Inge,
Huyghebaert Cedric,
Absil Philippe,
Thourhout Dries
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201500250
Subject(s) - graphene , broadband , materials science , optoelectronics , optical modulator , modulation (music) , photonics , silicon photonics , electro absorption modulator , silicon , absorption (acoustics) , bandwidth (computing) , electro optic modulator , optics , electronic engineering , telecommunications , computer science , nanotechnology , phase modulation , physics , semiconductor , engineering , quantum dot laser , semiconductor laser theory , phase noise , acoustics , composite material
High performance integrated optical modulators are highly desired for future optical interconnects. The ultra‐high bandwidth and broadband operation potentially offered by graphene based electro‐absorption modulators has attracted a lot of attention in the photonics community recently. In this work, we theoretically evaluate the true potential of such modulators and illustrate this with experimental results for a silicon integrated graphene optical electro‐absorption modulator capable of broadband 10 Gb/s modulation speed. The measured results agree very well with theoretical predictions. A low insertion loss of 3.8 dB at 1580 nm and a low drive voltage of 2.5 V combined with broadband and athermal operation were obtained for a 50 μm‐length hybrid graphene‐Si device. The peak modulation efficiency of the device is 1.5 dB/V. This robust device is challenging best‐in‐class Si (Ge) modulators for future chip‐level optical interconnects.