As the modulation bandwidth is primarily related to the optical Q of the device, it can be engineered flexibly for different application purposes, simply by choosing device with appropriate optical Q. C.W., M.Z., X.C., P.W. Phys. volume11, Articlenumber:4123 (2020) Opt. Opt. Optical modulators, using acousto-optic, magneto-optic or electro-optic effects, as the principal components for external modulation of lightwaves, have presently played the important role in modern long-haul ultra-high speed optical communications and photonic signal processing systems. J. Lightwave Technol. VOA variable optical attenuator, MZI MachZehnder interferometer, EDFA erbium-doped fiber amplifier, BPF bandpass filter, MNA, microwave network analyzer, PRBS pseudo-random binary sequence source. The scale bar on the left represents the strength of normalized electrical field (Enorm) for d, f, g. The photonic-crystal cavity is oriented along the y-axis such that the dominant optical field is in parallel with the optical axis of underlying LN medium (Fig. Nature 546, 622626 (2017). Javid, U. Nat. The photonic-crystal hole structure was patterned with ZEP-520A positive resist via electron-beam lithography, which was then transferred to the LN layer with an Ar+ plasma milling process to etch down the full 300-nm depth. Nat. Opt. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the articles Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and M.L. Koeber, S. et al. The device also exhibits a second-order TE-like cavity mode \({\mathrm{{TE}}}_{01}^{1}\) (Fig. Acousto-optical modulation of thin film lithium niobate waveguide devices. IEEE Photonics Technol. In 2015 IEEE Compound Semiconductor Integrated Circuit Symposium 14 (2015); https://doi.org/10.1109/CSICS.2015.7314513, Letal, G. et al. Shen, Y. et al. The red solid and open circles denote the fundamental and second-order TE-like cavity modes shown in f and g. Our simulations show that there exhibits another mode with eigenfrequency within the band gap (gray open circles). a Schematic of half of the cross-section of the EOM structure. Optica 4, 12511258 (2017). Opt. Dong, P. et al. (Credit: Second Bay Studios/Harvard SEAS). You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. Electro-optic modulator (EOM) takes a vital role in connecting the electric and optical fields. The orange curve in Fig. Nature 528, 534538 (2015). Google Scholar. Electron. A 100, 043811 (2019). The device exhibits a resonance at 1554.47nm, which corresponds to the fundamental TE-like cavity mode \({\mathrm{{TE}}}_{01}^{0}\) (Fig. Quantum frequency conversion and single-photon detection with lithium niobate nanophotonic chips, Integrating planar photonics for multi-beam generation and atomic clock packaging on chip, Sub-1 Volt and high-bandwidth visible to near-infrared electro-optic modulators, http://www.fujitsu.com/jp/group/foc/en/products/optical-devices/100gln/, http://eospace.com/pdf/EOSPACEbriefProductInfo2017.pdf, https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=3948, https://doi.org/10.1109/CSICS.2015.7314513. Lu, H. et al. Light Sci. For LN, however, the EOMs developed so far1,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26 generally exhibit significant dimensions, leading to significant power required to drive the EOMs. High-quality lithium niobate photonic crystal nanocavities. Photon. and Q.L. Yuan, L., Xiao, M., Lin, Q. Article Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. External modulator is typically either a LiNbO3 modulator or an electroabsorptive modulator. When the modulation frequency is below 1.0GHz, The transmission spectrum remains fairly similar regardless of modulation frequency, as expected from the adiabatic driving discussed above. Correspondence to 27 March 2023, Receive 51 print issues and online access, Get just this article for as long as you need it, Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout. Photon. Open Access High-speed Pockels modulation and second-order nonlinearities are key components in optical systems, but CMOS-compatible platforms like silicon and silicon nitride lack these capabilities. carried out the device characterization. Phys. The green region indicates the electrode that can be shrunk to in the future design. Qiang Lin. Laser Photonics Rev. Nat. c Detailed spectrum (blue) with RF driving signal at 2.0GHz with a power of 16mW. As an example application, we demonstrate electro-optic switching of non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signal at a rate of 11Gbs1, with a switching energy as low as 22fJ per bit that is more than one order of magnitude smaller than other LN EOMs1,13,14,15,16,17,18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26. The inset of a shows the measured normalized transmission (NT) on a logarithmic scale, revealing an extinction ratio of 30 dB. Chen, L., Xu, Q., Wood, M. G. & Reano, R. M. Hybrid silicon and lithium niobate electro-optical ring modulator. 5a, the cavity resonance tunes smoothly with the applied voltage, without any degradation to the lineshape or coupling depth, clearly showing the pure dispersive electro-optic tuning as expected from the Pockels effect. A variety of approaches have been explored for this purpose, including plasmonic structures29,30, slotted dielectric waveguides10, photonic micro-/nanoresonators6,31, etc. 8, 701705 (2014). Express 21, 3035030357 (2013). Nature Communications (Nat Commun) Jiang, W. et al. Nozaki, K. et al. Wooten, E. L. et al. Nat. Rao, A. et al. After the residue removal, we used diluted hydrofluoric acid to undercut the buried oxide layer to form a suspended photonic-crystal membrane structure (Fig. If you find something abusive or that does not comply with our terms or guidelines please flag it as inappropriate. A typical design requires a full air cladding to improve the optical quality factor43,45,46. The RF driving power is 16mW. B. Attojoule optoelectronics for low-energy information processing and communications. Chen, X. et al. Science 298, 14011403 (2002). ADS Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content: Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article. c, d, Numerically simulated microwave (c) and optical (d) field distributions (both shown in Ez components) in the cross-section of the thin-film modulator. Wolf, S. et al. Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter what matters in science, free to your inbox daily. Marpaung, D., Yao, J. The electrodes are designed to be placed close to the photonic-crystal resonator (Fig. 5, 425429 (2011). High-performance and linear thin-film lithium niobate Mach-Zehnder modulators on silicon up to 50 GHz. Photon. 41, 57005703 (2016). These authors contributed equally: Cheng Wang, Mian Zhang, John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA, Cheng Wang,Mian Zhang,Maxime Bertrand,Amirhassan Shams-Ansari&Marko Lonar, Department of Electronic Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China, Xi Chen,Sethumadhavan Chandrasekhar&Peter Winzer, LP2N, Institut dOptique Graduate School, CNRS, University of Bordeaux, Talence, France, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Howard University, Washington, DC, USA, You can also search for this author in J. Lightwave Technol. 13, 1800228 (2019). Nature Loncar and his team used small but powerful distributed feedback lasers for their integrated chip. 5 Comparison of integrated and conventional LN modulators. By submitting a comment you agree to abide by our Terms and Community Guidelines. The large metal pads (highlighted in blue box) are used simply as the contacts for the air-coplanar probe (Formfactor Acp65-A-GSG-100) for applying the RF driving signal (see also the inset of Fig. LiNbO. Top. Photon. This is in strong contrast to piezoelectric acoustic modulation which is confined to the vicinity of mechanical resonance frequency45,49,50. The key modulation waveguide structure is a field-enhanced slot waveguide formed by embedding silicon nanowires in a thin-film lithium niobate (LN), which is different from the previously . Correspondence to Commun. MathSciNet PSI offers ultra-high-speed lithium niobate phase modulators. The full cross-section is shown in d. c Dispersion property of the partially etched LN photonic-crystal nanobeam, simulated by the finite element method (FEM). Opt. ADS The light reflected from the EOM was collected by the same lensed fiber, routed by a circulator, and then delivered to a photodiode for detection. 8b), which, however, might sacrifice the optical Q due to metallic losses. Gigahertz speed operation of epsilon-near-zero silicon photonic modulators. e, Group refractive indices for both optical and microwave signals as a function of the buried oxide thickness. Tzuang, L. D., Fang, K., Nussenzveig, P., Fan, S. & Lipson, M. Non-reciprocal phase shift induced by an effective magnetic flux for light. 26, 13321335 (2014). In most cases, lasers are stand-alone devices, external to the modulators, making the whole system more expensive and less stable and scalable. On the other hand, placing the electrode closer to the photonic-crystal cavity will strengthen as well the driving electric field inside the cavity and thus enhance the electro-optic tuning (Fig. A fully photonics-based coherent radar system. The elliptical hole has dimensions of hx=270nm and hy=490nm, and a fully etched depth of 300nm. 94, 241107 (2009). On chip, the lasers sit in small wells or trenches etched into the lithium niobate and deliver up to 60 milliwatts of optical power in the waveguides fabricated in the same platform. Such a supercell of metasurface is constructed by two kinds of finite-sized arrays possessing different topological properties via the generalized two-dimensional (2D . Quant. Google Scholar. 35, 346396 (2017). Opt. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17950-7, DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-17950-7. 29 Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, Research paves the way for high-powered telecommunication systems, 2023 President and Fellows of Harvard College, First integrated laser on lithium niobate chip. In the current EOMs shown above, light is coupled into and out of the EOMs via a same side of the cavity, which is not convenient in practice since a circulator is required to separate the modulated light for the laser input. 03 April 2023, Nature Communications The gray curves show the created individual sidebands with Lorentzian-shape resonances and the dashed vertical lines indicates their relative frequency positions. In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles We realize an intensity modulator of 12.5 mm long modulation section, which exhibits a low half-wave voltage of 1.7 V and a large 3 dB modulation bandwidth of >70 GHz. Broadband electro-optic frequency comb generation in a lithium niobate microring resonator. This Perspective discusses and compares several different approaches to the design of high-bandwidth, low-voltage electro-optic devices, such as Mach-Zehnder modulators, made using thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) and strategies for their incorporation as part of a larger photonic integrated circuit (PIC). The extinction ratio can be significantly improved by further optimization of the photonic-crystal mirrors (Fig. Koeber, S. et al. B 97, 104105 (2018). For example, LNOI phase modulators with relatively low Thin-film lithium niobate (LN) has recently emerged as a strong contender owing to its high intrinsic electro-optic (EO) efficiency, industry-proven performance, robustness, and, importantly, the rapid development of scalable fabrication techniques. J. Lightwave Technol. a is the lattice constant. Lett. The modulators enable efficient electro-optic driving of high-Q photonic cavity modes in both adiabatic and non-adiabatic regimes, and allow us to achieve electro-optic switching at 11 Gb s1 with a bit-switching energy as low as 22 fJ. Power efficiency is crucial for the application of electro-optic modulator (EOM), which depends sensitively on the physical size of the device27. Although attempts have been made to explore the electro-optic effect in LN photonic crystals40,41,42, the low device quality and poor optoelectronic integration unfortunately limit seriously the operation speed. Liu, K., Ye, C. R., Khan, S. & Sorger, V. J. Femtojoule electro-optic modulation using a silicon-organic hybrid device. Electro-optic modulation in slotted resonant photonic crystal heterostructures. This work is supported in part by National Science Foundation (NSF) (EFMA-1641099, ECCS-1810169, and ECCS-1842691); the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-Joint Science and Technology Office for Chemical and Biological Defense (grant No. Silicon optical modulators. & Lin, Q. Quantum correlations from dynamically modulated optical nonlinear interactions. Opt. Lithium Niobate Electro-Optic Modulators, Fiber-Coupled (1260 nm - 1625 nm) Up to 40 GHz Lithium Niobate (LiNbO 3) Modulators Fiber-Coupled, High-Speed Modulation Intensity, Phase, or I/Q X-Cut or Z-Cut Devices LNP6118 40 GHz Phase Modulator with Polarizer, Z-Cut LN81S-FC 10 GHz Intensity Modulator, X-Cut LNLVL-IM-Z 314, 317 (2014). High-Q photonic resonators and electro-optic coupling using silicon-on-lithium-niobate. a Recorded transmission spectra of the \({\mathrm{{TE}}}_{01}^{0}\) cavity mode with RF driving signal at seven different powers from 0 to 12mW, with a power step of 2mW, modulated at 0.6GHz. 1d and8a). Lee, M. et al. Our EO modulators use MgO-doped lithium niobate for high power operation. https://www.thorlabs.com/newgrouppage9.cfm?objectgroup_id=3948. wrote the manuscript with contribution from all authors. Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) modulator can be regarded as a technology platform that can add values to optical networks and is suitable for addressing many issues. Optica 4, 12511258 (2017). PubMedGoogle Scholar. 9, 172194 (2015). A hybrid waveguide with a lithium niobate thin film bonded on a silicon wire is employed. Opt. Nguyen, H. C., Hashimoto, S., Shinkawa, M. & Baba, T. Compact and fast photonic crystal silicon optical modulators. 3, 9194 (2009). Nature (Nature) Photon. and A.S. fabricated the devices. Chen, L., Wood, M. G. & Reano, R. M. 12.5 pm/V hybrid silicon and lithium niobate optical microring resonator with integrated electrodes. Ozaki, J., Ogiso, Y. The equipment in the highlighted dashed box is used for characterizing the performance of electro-optic modulation. Technol. Shakoor, A. et al. Such flexibility allows us to observe direct transition between the adiabatic driving regime and the non-adiabatic regime simply by continuously sweeping the modulation frequency to across the cavity linewidth. Sci. Lithium niobate etching is not required for making the hybrid optical waveguides. http://eospace.com/pdf/EOSPACEbriefProductInfo2017.pdf, 40GHz or 40Gb/s Lithium Niobate Modulators. As shown in Fig. Mercante, A. J. et al. Loncar is a cofounder of HyperLight Corporation, a startup which was launched to commercialize integrated photonic chips based on certain innovations developed in his lab.