Design of a silicon-plasmonic hybrid electro-optic modulator

Abstract

We propose a racetrack ring based optical modulator employing an electro-optic polymer infiltrated silicon-plasmonic hybrid phase shifter. From simulation results, an extinction ratio of higher than 15 dB is achieved at 1550-nm wavelength under a 1.2-V bias. A modulation bandwidth of more than 100 GHz can be potentially obtained due to a fast response speed of the Pockels effect, a reduced RC delay, and a decreased quality factor of the ring.