Design and optimization of optical modulators based on graphene-on-silicon nitride microring resonators
arXiv:1610.03152 · doi:10.1088/2040-8986/aa5519
Abstract
In order to overcome the challenge of obtaining high modulation depth due to weak graphene-light interaction, a graphene-on-silicon nitride (SiNx) microring resonator based on graphene's gate-tunable optical conductivity is proposed and studied. Geometrical parameters of graphene-on-SiNx waveguide are systematically analyzed and optimized, yielding a loss tunability of 0.04 dB/μm and an effective index variation of 0.0022. We explicitly study the interaction between graphene and a 40-μm-radius microring resonator, where electro-absorptive and electro-refractive modulation are both taken into account. By choosing appropriate graphene coverage and coupling coefficient, a high modulation depth of over 40 dB with large fabrication tolerance is obtained.
12 pages, 7 figures