Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Optical isolators, while commonplace in bulk and fiber optical systems, remain a key missing component in integrated photonics. Isolation using magneto-optic materials has been difficult to integrate into complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication platforms, motivating the use of other paths to effective non-reciprocity such as temporal modulation. We demonstrate a non-reciprocal element comprising a pair of microring modulators and a microring phase shifter in an active silicon photonic process, which, in combination with standard bandpass filters, yields an isolator on-chip. Isolation up to 13 dB is measured with a 3 dB bandwidth of 2 GHz and insertion loss of 18 dB. We also show transmission of a 4 Gbps optical data signal through the isolator while retaining a wide-open eye diagram. This compact design, in combination with increased modulation efficiency, could enable modulator-based isolators to become a standard 'black-box' component in integrated photonics CMOS foundry platform component libraries.
Source: Optics Letters
DOI: 10.1364/ol.408614
Authors: Nathan Dostart, Hayk Gevorgyan, Deniz Onural, Miloš A. Popović
Institutions: University of Colorado Boulder, Boston University
Language: English
Topic: Photonic and Optical Devices
Subfield: Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W3081373404