Designs of Silicon MIS Phase Modulator With a Deposited AlN Film as the Gate Dielectric

Author

Shiyang Zhu ; Guo-Qiang Lo

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Agency for Sci., Technol. & Res., Singapore, Singapore

Volume

27

Issue

11

fYear

2015

fDate

June1, 1 2015

Firstpage

1236

Lastpage

1239

Abstract

We propose and analyze a silicon metal-insulator- semiconductor phase modulator based on a poly-Si/AlN/Si horizontal slot waveguide. The AlN gate dielectric exhibits an inherent Pockels effect, which can provide additional phase modulation besides that provided by the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect of Si. The proposed modulator with an optimized geometry offers a high modulation efficiency of 0.95 V · cm for the 1.55-μm transverse magnetic light even the electrooptical coefficient of AlN (r₃₃) is only 1 pm/V, which is ~40% better than the SiO₂ counterpart with the same equivalent oxide thickness. The modulation efficiency increases quickly with r₃₃ increasing, reaching 0.2 V · cm when r₃₃ is 10 pm/V.

Keywords

MIS devices; Pockels effect; aluminium compounds; electro-optical modulation; geometrical optics; integrated optics; optical design techniques; optical films; optical waveguides; optimisation; phase modulation; silicon; Pockels effect; Si-AlN-Si; aluminium nitride film deposition; aluminium nitride gate dielectric; electrooptical coefficient; free-carrier plasma dispersion effect; geometry optimization; poly-silicon-aluminium nitride-silicon horizontal slot waveguide; silicon MIS phase modulator designs; silicon metal-insulator- semiconductor phase modulator; transverse magnetic light; wavelength 1.55 mum; Dielectrics; Electrooptic modulators; III-V semiconductor materials; Logic gates; Optical waveguides; Silicon; CMOS compatibility; Waveguide modulators; electro-optic materials; integrated optics devices;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2015.2415484

Filename

7065215