Low-Voltage, Compact, Depletion-Mode, Silicon Mach–Zehnder Modulator

Abstract

Through rigorous process, electrical, and optical simulations, we develop a new silicon depletion-mode vertical p-n junction phase-modulator implemented in Mach-Zehnder modulator configuration, enabling an ultralow measured <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">V</i> <sub xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">¿</sub> <i xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">L</i> of only ~ 1 V·cm. Further, in a 500-¿m-long lumped element device, we demonstrate a 10-Gb/s nonreturn-to-zero data transmission with wide-open complementary output eye diagrams without the use of signal preemphasis.