Advanced design of silicon photonic electro-optic modulators for high efficiency and low loss

The present article introduces an electro-optic modulator based on silicon photonics, specifically designed for integration with CMOS (Complementary Metal–Oxide–Semiconductor) technology. This modulator is engineered to optimize its performance for photonic circuit applications by offering a high extinction ratio, low insertion loss, and compact footprint. The electro-optic modulation mechanism is based on carrier concentration variation, which induces changes in the refractive index. To enhance performance while reducing device size and optical losses, advanced plasmonic materials, such as transparent conductive oxides, are incorporated. To enhance the confinement of light and light-matter interaction, a slotted waveguide structure has been developed. In addition, a new plasmonic electro-optic modulator with a V-shaped structure using indium tin oxide (ITO) is proposed as a novel solution. The performance of the modulator is evaluated using key parameters, including insertion loss, extinction ratio, and figure of merit (FoM), operating at a telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 μm. The results show that the modulator achieves an extinction ratio of 55.05 dB/μm, an insertion loss of 1.01 dB/μm, and a FoM of 2.959, which are significant improvements over ITO-based modulators. These results demonstrate that the proposed V-shaped modulator is a strong candidate for integration into next-generation photonic integrated circuits, due to its high performance and scalability.