Output details
13 - Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials
University of Southampton
High speed silicon electro-optical modulators enhanced via slow light propagation
Significance of output:
The paper reports first high speed silicon modulator enhanced by slow light. Reduces power consumption, energy per bit, and device footprint making Mach-Zehnder modulators viable for interconnect. Power consumption is arguably the most pressing issue for high density optical interconnect, and silicon photonics device research is targeting low power. This paper demonstrated for the first time that slow light can truly enhance performance, rather than being a research curiosity. Results showed a reduction in device length (> 60% and corresponding power reduction). The modulator operated up to 40Gb/s. Funded in €8M European project (“HELIOS” FP7 – 224312 1/5/2008 – 31/11/12).
