Compact optical modulator based on carrier induced gain of an InP/InGaAsP micro-disk cavity integrated on SOI

A compact electro-optic modulator on silicon-on-insulator is presented. The structure consists of a III-V microdisk cavity heterogeneously integrated on a silicon-on-insulator wire waveguide. By modulating the loss of the active layer included in the cavity through carrier injection, the power of the transmitted light at the resonant wavelength is modulated. ~10 dB extinction ratio and 2.73 Gbps dynamic operation are demonstrated without using any special driving techniques. The results are consistent with the theoretical simulations. © 2008 SPIE.