Quadratic electro-optical silicon-organic hybrid RF modulator in a photonic integrated circuit technology

For the first time, an integrated electro-optical RF modulator based on the quadratic electro-optical effect with CMOS compatible sub-volt driver voltages is presented. As unique feature, this modulator provides an amplitude tuning of the modulated carrier wave. The silicon-based modulator was fabricated using process steps of an established photonic integrated circuit technology and covered by a nonlinear optical polymer in a post-process. We demonstrate a device tunability of up to 350 pm/V, surpassing state-of-the-art silicon modulators with an order of magnitude. Moreover, the ring resonator is designed to have an ultra-low per-bit energy consumption of 87 aJ/bit demonstrating the potential for high-performance photonic devices with low energy consumption.