Authors:	Y. Hu, M. Pantouvaki, J. Van Campenhout, S. Brems, I. Asselberghs, C. Huyghebaert, P. Absil, D. Van Thourhout
Title:	Broadband 10 Gb/s operation of graphene electro-absorption modulator on silicon
Format:	International Journal
Publication date:	1/2016
Journal/Conference/Book:	Laser & Photonics Reviews
Editor/Publisher:	Elsevier,
Volume(Issue):	10(2) p.307-316
DOI:	10.1002/lpor.201500250
Citations:	146 (Dimensions.ai - last update: 21/4/2024) 61 (OpenCitations - last update: 19/4/2024) Look up on Google Scholar
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Abstract

High performance integrated optical modulators are highly desired for future optical interconnects. The ultra-high bandwidth and broadband operation potentially offered by graphene based electro-absorption modulators has attracted a lot of attention in the photonics community recently. In this work, we theoretically evaluate the true potential of such modulators and illustrate this with experimental results for a silicon integrated graphene optical electro-absorption modulator capable of broadband 10 Gb/s modulation speed. The measured results agree very well with theoretical predictions. A low insertion loss of 3.8 dB at 1580 nm and a low drive voltage of 2.5 V combined with broadband and athermal operation were obtained for a 50 μm-length hybrid graphene-Si device. The peak modulation efficiency of the device is 1.5 dB/V. This robust device is challenging best-in-class Si (Ge) modulators for future chip-level optical interconnects.