Abstract

Low-loss and high-speed modulators are an essential component in telecom and datacom applications and in optical quantum technologies [1]. Silicon photonics fulfills the scalability and density criteria and shows increased nonlinearity and decreased loss at 2.1 µm [2]. Silicon as a centrosymmetric material does not exhibit second-order nonlinearity and plasma dispersion modulation is not an option due to carrier-induced loss and incompatibility with cryogenic environments. A way to break the symmetry in silicon is to apply strong DC electric field and thus perturb its refractive index. This effect is known as DC Kerr effect. We explore the DC Kerr effect for modulation in this platform [3] by designing PIN junctions embedded into an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer (AMZI). We apply reverse bias to the junction to induce a shift in phase of the light propagating along the active PIN region of the structure. High voltages are required to drive these phase changes, as shown in Fig.1.(b-d).

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