High-speed silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulator with 1.6 fJ/bit and 180 pm/V in-device nonlinearity

We report on a 40 Gbit/s silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulator with 11 dB extinction ratio. A novel electro-optic chromophore with record in-device nonlinearity of 180 pm/V leads to V
_π
L = 0.5 Vmm and a low energy consumption of 1.6 fJ/bit at 12.5 Gbit/s.