Monolithic Silicon Photonic Integrated Circuits for Compact 100<formula formulatype="inline"><tex Notation="TeX"> $^{+}$</tex></formula>Gb/s Coherent Optical Receivers and Transmitters

TLDR

We present silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based coherent optical transmitters and receivers for high‑speed long‑distance fiber optical transmission. High‑degree photonic integration is achieved by monolithically integrating silicon electro‑optic modulators, germanium photodetectors, silicon nitride‑assisted on‑chip polarization rotators, thermal phase shifters, and various passive silicon optical devices on a single wafer platform. The PICs enable 112‑Gb/s PDM‑QPSK and 224‑Gb/s PDM‑16‑QAM modulation and coherent detection, including 112‑Gb/s PDM‑QPSK transmission over 2560‑km standard single‑mode fiber, demonstrating a small‑form‑factor, low‑power transceiver suitable for future high‑cost‑efficiency coherent systems.

Abstract

We present silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based coherent optical transmitters and receivers for high-speed long-distance fiber optical transmission. High-degree photonic integration is achieved by monolithically integrating silicon electro-optic modulators, germanium photo detectors, silicon nitride-assisted on-chip polarization rotators, thermal phase shifters, and various passive silicon optical devices on a single wafer platform. We demonstrate the use of these PICs for modulating and detecting 112-Gb/s polarization-division-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift keying (PDM-QPSK) and 224-Gb/s PDM 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation (PDM-16-QAM) signals. Transmission and coherent detection of a 112-Gb/s PDM-QPSK signal over 2560-km standard single-mode fiber is also demonstrated. The high-degree photonic integration for silicon PICs promises small-form-factor and low-power-consumption transceivers for future coherent systems that demand high cost efficiency and energy efficiency.