On the effective carrier lifetime of a silicon p–i–n diode optical modulator

Abstract
A Si waveguide integrated with a lateral p-i-n diode forms a popular optical amplitude and a phase modulator. Three experimental techniques were introduced to measure the effective carrier lifetime in the Si modulator: the static optical absorption method, the reverse recovery method and the transient optical absorption method. A simple theoretical model was established to estimate the effective carrier lifetime in the Si modulator from its geometry.