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Aluminum nitride electro-optic phase shifter for backend integration on silicon
Optics Express
|July 14, 2016
Summary
Aluminum nitride (AlN) electro-optic phase shifters were fabricated on silicon using advanced semiconductor technology. These devices demonstrate promising modulation efficiency for integrated photonics applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Photonics
- Electrical Engineering
Background:
- Integrated photonics requires efficient electro-optic modulators for signal processing.
- Aluminum nitride (AlN) is a promising material for electro-optic applications due to its properties.
- Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology offers a scalable platform for photonic integration.
Purpose of the Study:
- To fabricate and characterize an AlN electro-optic phase shifter.
- To evaluate the modulation efficiency of AlN for integrated photonics.
- To determine the Pockels coefficient of deposited AlN films.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of AlN phase shifters using back-end CMOS technology.
- Integration with waveguide-ring resonators and Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) modulators.
- Optical characterization near the 1550-nm wavelength to measure modulation efficiency.
Main Results:
- Achieved modulation efficiency of ~240 V·cm for transverse electric (TE) mode and ~320 V·cm for transverse magnetic (TM) mode.
- Deduced Pockels coefficient of ~1.0 pm/V for AlN across both TE and TM modes.
- Demonstrated feasibility for multilayer photonics integration.
Conclusions:
- The fabricated AlN electro-optic phase shifter shows significant potential for integrated photonic circuits.
- The results confirm AlN as a viable material for high-performance electro-optic modulation.
- Further improvements in modulation efficiency are possible and discussed.
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