Germanium electroabsorption devices on silicon for optical interconnects

摘要

Monolithic integration of both electronic and optic components into a silicon-based platform will provide high-speed optical interconnects and solve the power-bandwidth limitations. However, the lack of strong optical effects in silicon has limited the progress in the transmitter-end applications. Recently our research had demonstrated strong quantum-confined Stark effect (QCSE) in germanium quantum-well modulators on silicon. This first strong physical mechanism for group-Ⅳ photonics has a comparable behavior to Ⅲ-Ⅴ material systems. With proper quantum well structure design, we also demonstrated QCSE in C-band for long distance communications with CMOS-operational temperatures. The device fabrication is also compatible with standard silicon chip processes. Since the QCSE, a type of electroabsorption effect, requires much shorter optical length, it is suitable for device miniaturizations and possible for use in both lateral and vertical modulator configurations. Moreover, silicon-germanium electroabsorption modulators are inherently photodetectors, this advantage will enable efficient transmitter/receiver applications for optical interconnects.