Open AccessSubmicrometer Epsilon-Near-Zero Electroabsorption Modulators Enabled by High-Mobility Cadmium Oxide
Author(s) -
Salvatore Campione,
Michael G. Wood,
Darwin K. Serkland,
S. Parameswaran,
Jon Ihlefeld,
T. S. Luk,
Joel R. Wendt,
Kent M. Geib,
Gordon A. Keeler
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
ieee photonics journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1943-0655
pISSN - 1943-0647
DOI - 10.1109/jphot.2017.2723299
Subject(s) - engineered materials, dielectrics and plasmas , photonics and electrooptics
Epsilon-near-zero materials provide a new path for tailoring light-matter interactions at the nanoscale. In this paper, we analyze a compact electroabsorption modulator based on epsilon-near-zero confinement in transparent conducting oxide films. The nonresonant modulator operates through field-effect carrier density tuning. We compare the performance of modulators composed of two different conducting oxides, namely, indium oxide (In2O3 ) and cadmium oxide (CdO), and show that better modulation performance is achieved when using high-mobility (i.e., low loss) epsilon-near-zero materials such as CdO. In particular, we show that nonresonant electroabsorption modulators with submicron lengths and greater than 5 dB extinction ratios may be achieved through the proper selection of high-mobility transparent conducting oxides, opening a path for device miniaturization and increased modulation depth.