Silicon thermooptical micromodulator with 700-kHz -3-dB bandwidth

Abstract
A silicon Fabry-Perot waveguide modulator, operating at the fiber optic communication wavelengths of 1.3 and 1.55 /spl mu/m, has been entirely fabricated using microelectronic techniques. The planar optical cavity has been defined by plasma etching and has a length of 100 /spl mu/m. The device, based on the thermooptic effect, is electrically driven and exhibits a maximum modulation depths of 60%. The measured -3 dB bandwidth is 700 kHz, which is by far the best result ever reported, to our knowledge, for thermooptic effect based modulators.

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