Hybrid Silicon-Vanadium Dioxide Electro-Optic Modulators

Small-footprint, low-power devices that can modulate optical signals at THz speeds would transform next-generation on-chip photonics. We describe a hybrid silicon-vanadium dioxide (Si-VO2) electro-optic ring resonator modulator as a candidate platform for achieving this performance benchmark. Vanadium dioxide (VO2) is a strongly correlated material exhibiting a semiconductor-to-metal transition (SMT) accompanied by large changes in electrical and optical properties. While VO2 can be switched optically on a sub-picosecond time scale, the ultimate electrical switching speed remains to be determined. In a 5 mu m radius Si-VO2 ring resonator, we achieve 1.5 dB modulation in response to a 10 ns square voltage pulse of 2.5 V. In the steady state regime, we report a modulation depth of 10 dB. The larger modulation depth at longer timescales is attributed to a Joule heating contribution. Experimental results, corroborated by FDTD simulations, reveal the relationship between the portion of a VO2 patch undergoing the SMT and the resulting effects on the Si-VO2 device performance. This work indicates that with further reduction of VO2 patch sizes and increase in resonator Q factor, there is promise for the Si-VO2 ring resonator electro-optic modulator as a competitive option for on-chip photonics technology.