Plasmonic IQ modulators with attojoule per bit electrical energy consumption

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Communications
• Semiconductor Devices
• Integrated Optics

Background:

• Coherent optical communications demand high data transmission capacity and spectral efficiency.
• In-phase/quadrature (IQ) electro-optic modulators are crucial for encoding information onto light's amplitude and phase.
• Existing IQ modulators often face limitations in energy efficiency and physical footprint.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present novel, compact IQ modulators fabricated on a silicon platform.
• To demonstrate energy-efficient operation and a reduced footprint for high-density integration.
• To assess the performance of these modulators for various data rates.

Main Methods:

• Fabrication of compact IQ modulators with a footprint of 4×25×3 µm on silicon.
• Operation of the modulators using sub-1-V driving electronics.
• Measurement of electrical energy consumption at data rates of 50, 200, and 400 Gbit/s.

Main Results:

• Achieved ultra-low electrical energy consumptions: 0.07 fJ/bit at 50 Gbit/s, 0.3 fJ/bit at 200 Gbit/s, and 2 fJ/bit at 400 Gbit/s.
• Demonstrated compact device footprint enabling high-density integration and spatial parallelism.
• Successful operation with low driving voltages.

Conclusions:

• The developed compact silicon IQ modulators offer significant advancements in energy efficiency and size reduction.
• These modulators show potential for widespread application in both long-haul and short-haul optical communication systems.
• The technology paves the way for next-generation, high-capacity, and power-efficient optical networks.