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Integrated silicon carbide electro-optic modulator
- Source :
- Nature communications. 13(1)
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- Owing to its attractive optical and electronic properties, silicon carbide is an emerging platform for integrated photonics. However an integral component of the platform is missing—an electro-optic modulator, a device which encodes electrical signals onto light. As a non-centrosymmetric crystal, silicon carbide exhibits the Pockels effect, yet a modulator has not been realized since the discovery of this effect more than three decades ago. Here we design, fabricate, and demonstrate a Pockels modulator in silicon carbide. Specifically, we realize a waveguide-integrated, small form-factor, gigahertz-bandwidth modulator that operates using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-level voltages on a thin film of silicon carbide on insulator. Our device is fabricated using a CMOS foundry compatible fabrication process and features no signal degradation, no presence of photorefractive effects, and stable operation at high optical intensities (913 kW/mm2), allowing for high optical signal-to-noise ratios for modern communications. Our work unites Pockels electro-optics with a CMOS foundry compatible platform in silicon carbide.
Details
- ISSN :
- 20411723
- Volume :
- 13
- Issue :
- 1
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Nature communications
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....9c79ae788307ace9ae560c312e3465b7