Analysis of Electrooptic Modulator With 1-D Slotted Photonic Crystal Nanobeam Cavity

A new nanocavity-based electrooptic modulator on silicon-on-insulator is proposed. This nanocavity is formed by a one-dimensional photonic crystal nanobeam cavity with a slot embedded. The slot lies in both the cavity and the distributed Bragg reflectors region. This results in an ultrasmall modal volume of 0.047 (λ/
n
)
³
and a high
Q
-factor of 8.6×10
⁴
. Another advantage of the structure is that polymers can be infiltrated into the slot. Accordingly, we rely on the fast and strong electrooptic effect of polymers, rather than on the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect of silicon. Analysis shows a modulator with a bandwidth of 86 GHz, a switching voltage of 0.2 V, and a length of only 14 μm can be obtained.