Hannover 2010 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 60: Photonics III
Q 60.3: Talk
Friday, March 12, 2010, 11:00–11:15, F 128
Broadband electro-optic modulation in hybrid silicon-organic photonic crystals — •Stefan Prorok1, Jan Hendrik Wülbern1, Jan Hampe1, Alexander Petrov1, Manfred Eich1, Jingdong Luo2, Alex K.-Y. Jen2, Andrea Di Falco3, and Thomas F. Krauss3 — 1Hamburg University of Technology, Eissendorfer Str. 38, D-21073 Hamburg, Germany — 2Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington 98194-2120, USA — 3School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, North Haugh, St Andrews KY16 9AJ, Scotland
Electrically driven modulation of the optical properties of silicon based photonic devices so far relies on the refractive index change resulting from the modulation of carrier density in silicon either by carrier depletion, injection or accumulation. The achievable modulation speeds using these methods is limited by the time constants by which the carriers can be injected into or removed from the area of the optical mode. In nonlinear optical (NLO) polymers however, the electro-optic effect originates from the electronic hyperpolarisability of the organic molecules, which allows extremely high modulation speeds. Photonic devices based on a hybrid material system merging silicon and polymer are therefore attractive since they combine the strong light confining abilities of silicon with the superior NLO properties of polymers. Here we present a compact and ultra fast electro-optic modulator based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide that can be realized in two dimensional slabs of silicon as core material employing a nonlinear optical polymer as infiltration and cladding material. A Klopfenstein-taper like electrode structure is used to provide an external modulation signal to the slotted waveguide. The taper like structure yields an increased field strength of the modulation signal. The optical field enhancement in the slotted region increases the nonlinear interaction with the external electric field. Using this kind of setup we demonstrate electro-optic modulation up to 40 GHz at a driving voltage of approximately 1 Volt.