Realization of Compact High-Performance EAM Based on Numerical Analysis of ITO, VO2 and Graphene on SiO2 Platform

Plasmonic based electro-absorption modulators (EAMs) has paved the way for high-speed photonic integrated circuits (PICs). This paper demonstrates the numerical analysis and the structural design of the EAM using various plasmonic materials, such as vanadium dioxide (VO₂), indium-tin-oxide (ITO) and graphene, to modulate signals traveling through the waveguide on an SiO₂ platform. It also explores key performance metrics, including the extinction ratio (ER) and the figure-of-merit (FOM), which is related to the device's insertion loss (IL). By optimizing the structural parameters and utilizing the plasmonic materials, the device characteristics, especially the effective-mode-index (EMI), is modified to attain the epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) condition. The ITO-based EAM attains a high ER of 22.24 dB/μm with a FOM of 482.45, while the graphene-ITO based EAM obtains an ER of 20.31 dB/μm and a FOM of 296.06 at 1.55 μm wavelength. Both devices have an energy consumption per bit (E_bit) below 2.20 fJ/bit and modulation frequency ($f$) exceeding 1300 GHz at an IL $< $ 0.07 dB/μm. The investigated EAMs hold potential for future-generation PICs.