Modeling and experiment on low voltage slow-light electro-absorption modulators for high-speed and low power consumption optical interconnect

Optical interconnects offer significant advantages for future high performance computers and large scale data centers. The development of low-voltage and high-speed modulators would be a challenge for further increase of the link capacity with low power consumption. we present the modeling and the experiment toward ultra-low voltage (<;500mV) and small footprint (<;50mV) electro-absorption modulators. We fabricated Bragg reflector waveguide slow light modulators with GaInAs/GaAs QW electro-absorption. We present the modeling and the measurement on their static characteristics including their near-field patterns with different applied voltages. While extinction ratios are lower than the modeling, sub-volt modulation can be seen for miniature devices below 100μm. In addition, we calculated the power consumption by simple circuit of modulator. As a result, a possibility of low power consumption below 100fJ/bit is presented.