High-performance and linear thin-film lithium niobate Mach–Zehnder modulators on silicon up to 50 GHz

Compact electro-optical modulators are demonstrated on thin films of lithium niobate on silicon operating up to 50 GHz. The half-wave voltage length product of the high-performance devices is 3.1 V.cm at DC and less than 6.5 V.cm up to 50 GHz. The 3 dB electrical bandwidth is 33 GHz, with an 18 dB extinction ratio. The third-order intermodulation distortion spurious free dynamic range is 97.3 dBHz2/3 at 1 GHz and 92.6 dBHz2/3 at 10 GHz. The performance demonstrated by the thin-film modulators is on par with conventional lithium niobate modulators but with lower drive voltages, smaller device footprints, and potential compatibility for integration with large-scale silicon photonics.