Electrically tunable silicon plasmonic phase modulators with nano-scale optical confinement

Abstract

Electrically tunable silicon (Si) plasmonic phase modulators with nano-scale optical confinement are presented and analyzed in this study. The modulation is realized based on two mechanisms: free carrier plasma dispersion effect in Si and high electro-optic effect in polymer. The phase modulators can be found potential applications in optical telecommunication and interconnect.

Keywords

surface plasmons / photonic integrated circuits / free carrier plasma dispersion effect / electro-optic effect

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Acknowledgments

This work was partially supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 program) (No. 2011CB301700), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (Grant Nos. 60877012, 61001074, 61007039), the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality Project (STCSM Project) (Nos. 10DJ1400402, 09JC1408100).

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2014 Higher Education Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg