Optimized silicon MZI modulators for 50 Gbit/s OOK and 40 Gbit/s BPSK modulation

We report 50Gb/s On-Off keying (OOK) and 40Gb/s binary phase shift keying (BPSK) modulation in a single-drive push-pull silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with optimized segmented electrode design. The measured modulation efficiency (Vπ·Lπ) is ~1.77 V·cm at 4.0 V reverse bias and the electro-optic (EO) 3-dB bandwidth exceeds 30 GHz at 6.0 V reverse bias.