Resonant plasmonic micro-racetrack modulators with high bandwidth and high temperature tolerance
Abstract
Resonant modulators encode electrical data onto wavelength-multiplexed optical carriers. Today, silicon microring modulators are perceived as promising to implement such links; however, they provide limited bandwidth and need thermal stabilization systems. Here we present plasmonic micro-racetrack modulators as a potential successor of silicon microrings: they are equally compact and compatible with complementary-metal–oxide–semiconductor-level driving voltages, but offer electro-optical bandwidths of 176 GHz, a 28 times improved stability against operating temperature changes and no self-heating effects. The temperature-resistant organic electro-optic material enables operation at 85 °C device temperature. We show intensity-modulated transmission of up to 408 Gbps at 12.3 femtojoules per bit with a single resonant modulator. Plasmonic micro-racetrack modulators offer a solution to encode high data rates (for example, the 1.6 Tbps envisioned by next-generation communications links) at a small footprint, with low power consumption and marginal, if no, temperature control. Show more
Permanent link
https://doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000601532Publication status
publishedExternal links
Journal / series
Nature PhotonicsVolume
Pages / Article No.
Publisher
NatureOrganisational unit
03974 - Leuthold, Juerg / Leuthold, Juerg
02635 - Institut für Elektromagnetische Felder / Electromagnetic Fields Laboratory
Funding
871658 - Neuro-augmented 112Gbaud CMOS plasmonic transceiver platform for Intra- and Inter-DCI (EC)
871391 - Energy- and Size-efficient Ultra-fast Plasmonic Circuits for Neuromorphic Computing Architectures (EC)
899558 - attojoule Cryogenic Communication (EC)
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