Optical modulation using the silicon platform

Optical modulator devices in silicon have experienced dramatic improvements over the last decade, with data rates demonstrated up to 50Gb/s and ultra-lower power consumption with a few fJ/bit[1]. However a significant need exist for high speed low power devices with a small footprint and broadband characteristics with extinction ratio above 5dB. Here we describe the work within the UK silicon photonics program, which has led to the fabrication and preliminary results of novel nano cavity optical architecture as well as self-aligned pn junction structures embedded in a silicon rib waveguide with an active length in the millimetre range producing high-speed optical phase modulation whilst retaining a high extinction ratio.