Silicon-polymer hybrid slot waveguide ring-resonator modulator

Abstract

We demonstrate a ring-resonator modulator based on a silicon-polymer hybrid slot waveguide with a tunability of 12.7 pm/V at RF speeds and a bandwidth of 1 GHz, for optical wavelengths near 1550 nm. Our slot waveguides were fabricated with 193 nm optical lithography, as opposed to the electron beam lithography used for previous results. The tunability is comparable to some of the best ring-based modulators making use of the plasma dispersion effect. The speed is likely limited only by resistance in the strip-loading section, and it should be possible to realize significant improvement with improved processing.