Optical modulators are required to have high modulation bandwidths and a compact footprint. In this paper we experimentally demonstrate a novel Si/In$_2$O$_3$ hybrid plasmonic waveguide modulator, which is realized by an asymmetric directional coupler (ADC) consisting of a silicon photonic waveguide and a Si/In$_2$O$_3$ hybrid plasmonic waveguide. The optical signal is modulated by radio-frequency (RF) signal applied on the Au electrodes at the top of MOS capacitor and contacting the In$_2$O$_3$ thin film. The record-high modulation bandwidth of >40 GHz is realized by a silicon-doping-free metal-oxide-In$_2$O$_3$ capacitor integrated in a 3.5-$μ$m-long asymmetric directional coupler (ADC) for the first time.
Here, we demonstrate a spectrally broadband, GHz-fast Mach-Zehnder interferometeric modulator, exhibiting a miniscule VpL of 95 V-um, deploying a sub-wavelength short electrostatically tunable plasmonic phase-shifter, based on heterogeneously integrated ITO thin films into silicon photonics.
Integrated ferroelectric plasmonic modulators featuring large bandwidths, broad optical operation range, resilience to high temperature and ultracompact footprint are introduced. Measurements show a modulation bandwidth of 70 GHz and a temperature stability up to 250°C. Mach-Zehnder interferometer modulators with 10-$μ$m-long phase shifters were operated at 116 Gbit/s PAM-4 and 72 Gbit/s NRZ. Wide and open eye diagrams with extinction ratios beyond 15 dB were found. The fast and robust devices are apt to an employment in industrial environments.
We present a plasmonic modulator based on hybrid orthogonal silver junctions using vanadium dioxide as the modulating material on the silicon on insulator. The modulator has an ultra-compact footprint of 1.8μm x 1μm with a 100nm x 100nm modulating section based on the orthogonal geometry. We take advantage of large change in the refractive index of vanadium dioxide during its phase transition to achieve a high modulation depth of 46.89dB/μm. We also provide a fabrication strategy for the development of this device. The device geometry has potential applications in the development of next gener…
We introduce phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) into metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide systems to realize chipscale plasmonic modulators and switches in the telecommunication band. Benefitting from the high contrast of optical properties between amorphous and crystalline GST, the three proposed structures can act as reconfigurable and non-volatile modulators and switches with excellent modulation depth 14 dB and fast response time in nanosecond, meanwhile possessing small footprints, simple frameworks and easy fabrication. This work provides new solutions to design active devices in MIM…
Broadband electro-optic intensity modulators are essential to convert electrical signals to the optical domain. The growing interest in THz wireless applications demands modulators with frequency responses to the sub-THz range, high power handling and very low nonlinear distortions, simultaneously. However, a modulator with all those characteristics has not been demonstrated to date. Here we experimentally demonstrate that plasmonic modulators do not trade off any performance parameter, featuring - at the same time - a short length of 10s of micrometers, record-high flat frequency response bey…
Phase-change materials (PCMs) have emerged as promising active elements in silicon (Si) photonic systems. In this work, we design, fabricate, and characterize a hybrid Si-PCM optical modulator. By integrating vanadium dioxide (a PCM) within a Si photonic waveguide, in a non-resonant geometry, we demonstrate ~ 10 dB broadband modulation with a PCM length of 500 nm.
In this paper, a numerical solution for a hybrid plasmonic modulator is presented with a six-layer structure consisting of an air superstrate, a gold layer, a barium titanate layer, a n type silicon layer, a gold layer and an Al2O3 nanolattice substrate. Regarding the suggested structure, the parameters related to the phase and the absorption modulation are investigated at different thicknesses. Here, the Pockels effect and the free carrier dispersion effect are considered simultaneously. The dispersion equation of this structure is analytically obtained and numerically solved by the Nelder-Me…
We report second harmonic generation from a titanium indiffused lithium niobate waveguide resonator device whose cavity length is locked to the fundamental pump laser using an on-chip phase modulator. The device remains locked for more than 5 minutes, producing more than 80\% of the initial second harmonic power. The stability of the system is seen to be limited by DC-drift, a known effect in many lithium niobate systems that include deposited electrodes. The presented device explores the suitability of waveguide resonators in this platform for use in larger integrated networks.
Densely integrated active photonics is key for next generation on-chip networks for addressing both footprint and energy budget concerns. However, the weak light-matter interaction in traditional active Silicon optoelectronics mandates rather sizable device lengths. The ideal active material choice should avail high index modulation while being easily integrated into Silicon photonics platforms. Indium tin oxide (ITO) offers such functionalities and has shown promising modulation capacity recently. Interestingly, the nanometer-thin unity-strong index modulation of ITO synergistically combines …
Plasmonic waveguides are an essential element of nanoscale coherent sources, including nanolasers and four-wave mixing (FWM) devices. Here we report how the design of the plasmonic waveguide needs to be guided by the ultimate application. This contrasts with traditional approaches in which the waveguide is considered in isolation. We find that hybrid plasmonic waveguides, with a nonlinear material sandwiched between the metal substrate and a high-index layer, are best suited for FWM applications, whereas metallic wedges are preferred in nanolasers. We also find that in plasmonic nanolasers hig…
We present an electro-optic modulator exploiting an array of Vanadium dioxide nanorods operating in the epsilon near regime as the active switching material integrated in a silicon waveguide. The modulator takes advantage of the insulator-to-metal transition of Vanadium dioxide to achieve a robust modulation depth of 19.7 dB/micron with a broad wavelength of operation. Using simulations, we demonstrate how the effective permittivity of the metamaterial can be tuned to a near-zero value by varying the nanorod geometry. The paper also proposes a novel hexagonal array design which achieves low in…
In this paper, four easy-to-fabricate graphene-based Si waveguide modulators are presented to overcome the strong polarization dependency of graphene-based modulators. The modulation features of two newly proposed structures, i.e. two graphene-based buried silicon waveguides in addition to two standard ridge silicon waveguides at the telecommunication wavelength of $λ=1.55 μm$ are studied. The results show that for certain widths of each waveguide (the height is constant), the amplitude and phase modulations clearly become polarization-insensitive. The amplitude modulation depths for both the …
A plasmonic modulator is a device that controls the amplitude or phase of propagating plasmons. In a pure plasmonic modulator, the presence or absence of a pump plasmonic wave controls the amplitude of a probe plasmonic wave through a channel. This control has to be mediated by an interaction between disparate plasmonic waves, typically requiring the integration of a nonlinear material. In this work, we demonstrate the first 2D semiconductor nonlinear plasmonic modulator based on a WSe2 monolayer integrated on top of a lithographically defined metallic waveguide. We utilize the strong coupling…
We introduce chip-integrated visible light communication-band modulators based on niobium (Nb) metallic plasmonic nano-antenna arrays. Our plasmonic nano-devices provide strong sensitivity to the polarization of the incident visible light and the geometrical parameters of their subwavelength nanoscale building blocks. Moreover, they offer optical modulation properties with modulation depth MD = 60% at resonant wavelength lambda= 716 nm, at room temperature. By engineering the photo response of the Nb nano-device arrays, we observe a maximum extinction A(lambda)= 1- R(lambda}) = 95 % at resonan…
As an analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) has been realized both in plasmonic metamaterial and waveguide structures. Via near-field coupling within unit cells, PIT with broadband could be produced by plasmonic metamaterials, which, however, has not been realized in on-chip plasmonic waveguide structures. Here, we introduce broadband PIT based on a plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide system. Utilizing the direct coupling structure, PIT emerges based on an easy-fabricated structure without gap. By tuning coupling distance, th…
We investigate mode converters for Si wire to plasmonic slot waveguides at 1550 nm telecom wavelength. The structures are based on a taper geometry. We provide optimal dimensions with more than 90% power transmission for a range of metal (Au) thicknesses between 30-250 nm. We provide details on how to differentiate between the total power and the power in the main mode of the plasmonic slot waveguide. Our analysis is based on the orthogonality of modes of the slot waveguide subject to a suitable inner product definition. Our results are relevant for lowering the insertion loss and the bit erro…
A novel thin-film LiNbO3 (TFLN) electro-optic modulator is proposed and demonstrated. LiNbO3-silica hybrid waveguide is adopted to maintain low optical loss for an electrode spacing as narrow as 3 μm, resulting in a record low half-wave-voltage length product of only 1.7 V*cm. Capacitively loaded traveling-wave electrodes (CL-TWEs) are employed to reduce the microwave loss, while quartz substrate is used in place of silicon substrate to achieve velocity matching. The fabricated TFLN modulator with a 5-mm-long modulation region exhibits a half-wave-voltage of 3.4 V and merely 1.3 dB roll-off in…
We report on a C-band double layer graphene electro-absorption modulator on a passive SOI platform showing 29GHz 3dB-bandwith and NRZ eye-diagrams extinction ratios ranging from 1.7 dB at 10 Gb/s to 1.3 dB at 50 Gb/s. Such high modulation speed is achieved thanks to the quality of the CVD pre-patterned single crystal growth and transfer on wafer method that permitted the integration of high-quality scalable graphene and low contact resistance. By demonstrating this high-speed CVD graphene EAM modulator integrated on Si photonics and the scalable approach, we are confident that graphene can sat…
We investigate a plasmonic electro-optic modulator with an extinction ratio exceeding 1 dB/um by engineering the optical mode to be in-plane with the graphene layer, and show how lowering the operating temperature enables steeper switching. We show how cooling Graphene enables steeping thus improving dynamic energy consumption. Further, we show that multi-layer Graphene integrated with a plasmonic slot waveguide allows for in-plane electric field components, and 3-dB device lengths as short as several hundred nanometers only. Compact modulators approaching electronic length-scales pave a way f…
In this work, a plasmonic right-angled waveguide bend and divider are proposed. Using the Transformation Optics (TO) approach the transformation media of a bend and a T-shaped divider are obtained. Such media with continuous refractive index are realized with the help of graphene in the terahertz frequency range, key to effectively guiding the surface plasmon polariton (SPP) propagation on the 90 degree curves. Components with such capability are promising for THz device applications.
Future wireless communication networks have to handle data rates of tens or even hundreds of Gbit/s per link, requiring carrier frequencies in the unallocated terahertz (THz) spectrum. In this context, seamless integration of THz links into existing fiber-optic infrastructures is of great importance to complement the inherent portability and flexibility advantages of wireless networks by the reliable and virtually unlimited capacity of optical transmission systems. On the technological level, this requires novel device and signal processing concepts for direct conversion of data streams betwee…
Electro-optic (EO) modulators rely on interaction of optical and electrical signals with second-order nonlinear media. For the optical signal, this interaction can be strongly enhanced by using dielectric slot-waveguide structures that exploit a field discontinuity at the interface between a high-index waveguide core and the low-index EO cladding. In contrast to this, the electrical signal is usually applied through conductive regions in the direct vicinity of the optical waveguide. To avoid excessive optical loss, the conductivity of these regions is maintained at a moderate level, thus leadi…
In this paper, a numerical solution for a plasmonic absorption modulator is presented with a six-layer structure consisting of an air superstrate, a gold layer, a barium titanate layer, a n type silicon layer, a gold layer and a thin-shell nanolattice aluminium oxide substrate. Regarding the suggested structure, the parameters related to the absorption modulation are investigated at different thicknesses. Here, the Pockels effect and the free carrier dispersion effect are considered simultaneously. The dispersion relation of this structure is analytically obtained and numerically solved by the…
A novel method for increasing the extinction ratio of plasmonic waveguide polarizer has been investigated in this work. Aluminum was coated in a 20 microns multi-strips pattern on the top of a SU-8 waveguide to excite the surface plasmons. Simulation and experimental results have been shown the extinction ratio of the multi-strip polarizer is more than the single strip ones with the same total aluminum-coated length due to the coupling loss between Al coated and uncoated region and also the scattering at the edge of metal. This polarizer was characterized over a wide range of wavelengths and s…
Terahertz (THz) band is considered as the next frontier in wireless communications. The emerging THz multiplexing techniques are expected to dramatically increase the information capacity of THz communications far beyond a single channel limit. In this work, we explore the THz frequency-division multiplexing modality enabled by novel add-drop multiplexer (ADM) design. Based on modular two-wire plasmonic waveguides fabricated using additive manufacturing and metallization techniques, we demonstrate four-port THz ADMs containing grating-loaded side couplers for operation at ~140 GHz carrier freq…
Waveguide-integrated plasmonics is a growing field with many innovative concepts and demonstrated devices in the visible and near-infrared. Here, we extend this body of work to the mid-infrared for the application of surface-enhanced infrared absorption (SEIRA), a spectroscopic method to probe molecular vibrations in small volumes and thin films. Built atop a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide platform, two key plasmonic structures useful for SEIRA are examined using computational modeling: gold nanorods and coaxial nanoapertures. We find resonance dips of 80% in near diffraction-limited are…
Plasmonic waveguides are key elements in nanophotonic devices serving as optical interconnects between nanoscale light sources and detectors. Multimode operation in plasmonic two-wire transmission lines promises important degrees of freedom for near-field manipulation and information encoding. However, highly confined plasmon propagation in gold nanostructures is typically limited to the near-infrared region due to ohmic losses, excluding all visible quantum emitters from plasmonic circuitry. Here, we report on top-down fabrication of complex plasmonic nanostructures in single-crystalline silv…
Electro-optic modulation is a key function for data communication. Given the vast amount of data handled, understanding the intricate physics and trade-offs of modulators on-chip allows revealing performance regimes not explored yet. Here we show a holistic performance analysis for waveguide-based electro-absorption modulators. Our approach centers around material properties revealing obtainable optical absorption leading to effective modal cross-section, and material broadening effects. Taken together both describe the modulator physical behavior entirely. We consider a plurality of material …
In this paper, we analytically study Surface Plasmon Polaritons (SPPs) in graphene-based cylindrical structures with gyroelectric layers. In the general waveguide, each graphene layer is surrounded by two various gyro-electric materials. New closed-form relations are derived for the field contributions of SPP waves. As a special case, a gyro-electric cylindrical waveguide with double-layer graphene is considered in this article. For the designed structure, the figure of merit (FOM) of 51 is reported for B= 2 T and μc=0.7 eV, at the frequency of 33 THz. It is demonstrated that the FOM of the st…
We formulate and experimentally validate an equivalent-circuit model based on distributed elements to describe the electric and electro-optic (EO) properties of travellingwave silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) slot-waveguide modulators. The model allows to reliably predict the small-signal EO frequency response of the modulators exploiting purely electrical measurements of the frequency-dependent RF transmission characteristics. We experimentally verify the validity of our model, and we formulate design guidelines for an optimum trade-off between optical loss due to free-carrier absorption (FCA), e…
Here we propose a waveguide-integrated germanium plasmonic photodetector that is based on a long-range dielectric-loaded surface plasmon polariton waveguide configuration. As this configuration ensures a long propagation distance, i.e., small absorption into metal, and a good mode field confinement, i.e., high interaction of the electric field with a germanium material, it is perfect for a realization of plasmonic germanium photodetectors. Such a photodetector even without optimization provides a responsivity exceeding 1 A/W for both wavelengths of 1310 nm and 1550 nm. To achieve such a respon…
In this paper we report on a low energy consumption CMOS-compatible plasmonic modulator based on Franz-Keldysh effect in germanium on silicon. We performed integrated electro-optical simulations in order to optimize the main characteristics of the modulator. A 3.3 $dB$ extinction ratio for a 30 $μm$ long modulator is demonstrated under 3 $V$ bias voltage at an operation wavelength of 1647 $nm$. The estimated energy consumption is as low as 20 $fJ/bit$.
Electro optic modulators being key for many signal processing systems must adhere to requirements given by both electrical and optical constrains. Distinguishing between charge driven (CD) and field driven (FD) designs, we answer the question of whether fundamental performance benefits can be claimed of modulators based on emerging electro-optic materials. Following primary metrics, we compare the performance of emerging electro-optic and electro-absorption modulators such as graphene, transparent conductive oxides, and Si, based on charge injection with that of the legacy FD modulators, such …
High efficiency and a compact footprint are desired properties for electro-optic modulators. In this paper, we propose, theoretically investigate and experimentally demonstrate a recirculating phase modulator, which increases the modulation efficiency by modulating the optical field several times in a non-resonant waveguide structure. The 'recycling' of light is achieved by looping the optical path that exits the phase modulator back and coupling it to a higher order waveguide mode, which then repeats its passage through the phase modulator. By looping the light back twice, we were able to dem…
Vanadium dioxide (${\rm VO}_2$) is a phase change material (PCM) that exhibits a large change in complex refractive index on the order of unity upon switching from its dielectric to its metallic phase. Although this property is key for the design of ultracompact optical modulators of only a few microns in footprint, the high absorption of ${\rm VO}_2$ leads to appreciable insertion loss (IL) that limits the modulator performance. In this paper, through theory and numerical modeling, we report on a new paradigm, which demonstrates how the use of a hybrid plasmonic waveguide to construct a ${\rm…
We propose a scheme for the coupler-free excitation of surface polaritonic solitons and breathers in a planar plasmonic waveguide structure comprising of a transparent layer, a metal layer and a layer of three-level lambda-type atomic medium. In the proposed system, an enhanced Kerr nonlinearity is achieved via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) in the bottom atomic medium, which can be controlled through proper modulation of the frequency detunings and Rabi frequencies of the driving laser fields. This nonlinearity balances the dispersion in the system, thus providing the necessar…
All-optical switches have attracted attention because they can potentially overcome the speed limitation of electric switches. However, ultrafast, energy-efficient all-optical switches have been challenging to realize due to the intrinsically small optical nonlinearity in existing materials. As a solution, we propose graphene-loaded deep-subwavelength plasmonic waveguides (30 nm x 20 nm). Thanks to extreme light confinement, we have significantly enhanced optical nonlinear absorption in graphene, and achieved ultrafast all-optical switching with a switching energy of 35 fJ and a switching time…
This work aims to design a CMOS compatible, low-electrical power consumption modulator assisted by plasmons. For compactness and reduction of the electrical power consumption, electro-absorption based on the Franz-Keldysh effect in Germanium was chosen for modulation. It consists in the change of the absorption coefficient of the material near the band edge under the application of a static electric field, hence producing a direct modulation of the light intensity. The use of plasmons allows enhancing the electro-optical effect due to the high field confinement. An integrated electro-optical s…
An efficient electro-optical modulation has been demonstrated here by using an edge plasmon mode specific for the hybrid plasmonic waveguide. Our approach addresses a major obstacle of the integrated microwave photonics caused by the polarization constraints of both active and passive components. In addition to sub-wavelength confinement, typical for surface plasmon polaritons, the edge plasmon modes enable exact matching of the polarization requirements for silicon based input/output grating couplers, waveguides and electro-optical modulators. A concept of the hybrid waveguide, implemented in…
