Ultra-high electro-optic activity demonstrated in a silicon-organic hybrid modulator

Abstract

Efficient electro-optic (EO) modulators crucially rely on advanced materials\nthat exhibit strong electro-optic activity and that can be integrated into\nhigh-speed and efficient phase shifter structures. In this paper, we\ndemonstrate ultra-high in-device EO figures of merit of up to n3r33 = 2300 pm/V\nachieved in a silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) Mach-Zehnder Modulator (MZM) using\nthe EO chromophore JRD1. This is the highest material-related in-device EO\nfigure of merit hitherto achieved in a high-speed modulator at any operating\nwavelength. The {\\pi}-voltage of the 1.5 mm-long device amounts to 210 mV,\nleading to a voltage-length product of U{\\pi}L = 320 V{\\mu}m - the lowest value\nreported for MZM that are based on low-loss dielectric waveguides. The\nviability of the devices is demonstrated by generating high-quality\non-off-keying (OOK) signals at 40 Gbit/s with Q factors in excess of 8 at a\ndrive voltage as low as 140 mVpp. We expect that efficient high-speed EO\nmodulators will not only have major impact in the field of optical\ncommunications, but will also open new avenues towards ultra-fast\nphotonic-electronic signal processing.\n