For next-era optical interconnects in data centers, development of compact, energy-efficient, low-cost, and high-speed optical transceivers are required, for which high-performance external modulators in silicon photonics will be key components. We present a silicon photonic crystal waveguide slow light Mach-Zehnder modulator suitable for this purpose. The enhancement in the modulation efficiency via the slow light effect reduces the halfwave voltage-length product VπL, maintaining a wide working spectrum over 15 nm. The frequency response of the slow light modulator is constricted by an electrooptic phase mismatch between slow light and RF signals. In this study, this was dramatically improved by matching the phase using meanderline electrodes that delay RF signals. The cutoff frequency was experimentally evaluated to be 32–38 GHz. Using this device, we demonstrated high-speed modulation, including 64-Gbps on-off keying, 100-Gbps pulse amplitude modulation, and 50-Gbps/ch wavelength division multiplexing in 170–200-μm- long devices.

中文翻译：

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用于高速传输和波分复用的硅光子晶体调制器

对于数据中心的下一代光互连，需要开发紧凑、节能、低成本和高速的光收发器，其中硅光子学中的高性能外部调制器将成为关键部件。我们提出了一种适用于此目的的硅光子晶体波导慢光马赫-曾德尔调制器。通过慢光效应提高调制效率降低了半波电压长度乘积 VπL，保持了超过 15 nm 的宽工作光谱。慢光调制器的频率响应受到慢光和 RF 信号之间的电光相位失配的限制。在这项研究中，通过使用延迟 RF 信号的曲折线电极匹配相位，这一点得到了显着改善。截止频率经实验评估为 32–38 GHz。