A BaTiO3-Based Electro-Optic Pockels Modulator Monolithically Integrated on an Advanced Silicon Photonics Platform
Open accessAbstract
To develop a new generation of high-speed photonic modulators on silicon-technology-based photonics, new materials with large Pockels coefficients have been transferred to silicon substrates. Previous approaches focus on realizing stand-alone devices on dedicated silicon substrates, incompatible with the fabrication process in silicon foundries. In this work, we demonstrate monolithic integration of electro-optic modulators based on the Pockels effect in barium titanate (BTO) thin films into the back-end-of-line of a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. Molecular wafer bonding allows fully PIC-compatible integration of BTO-based devices and is, as shown, scalable to 200 mm wafers. The PIC-integrated BTO Mach-Zehnder modulators outperform conventional Si photonic modulators in modulation efficiency, losses, and static tuning power. The devices show excellent VπL (0.2 Vcm) and VπLα (1.3 VdB), work at high speed (25 Gbps), and can be tuned at low-static power consumption (100 nW). Our concept demonstrates the possibility of monolithic integration of Pockels-based electro-optic modulators in advanced silicon photonic platforms.
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BTO requires poling to compensate for hysteresis from ferroelectric domain switching, albeit only ~1V DC compared to much larger voltages needed for polymer modulators.
“BTO also requires poling to compensate for hysteresis from ferroelectric domain switching (albeit only ~ 1V DC compared to much larger voltages needed for polymer modulators)65.”
From Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics (2024) · cites this paper as [65]
Recent demonstrations of large E/O BW make BTO promising.
“and recent demonstrations of large E/O BW65,75 make them promising.”
From Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics (2024) · cites this paper as [65]
Compatibility to Ge PD processing and reflow would be a requirement for a new modulator technology to be adopted by the commercial foundries.
“In general, compatibility to Ge PD processing65 and reflow66 would be a requirement for a new modulator technology to be adopted by the commercial foundries.”
From Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics (2024) · cites this paper as [65]
Cites
Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltages
Wang, C., Zhang, M., Chen, X., Bertrand, M., Shams-Ansari, A., Chandrasekhar, S., Winzer, P., & Lončar, M. (2018) · Nature · doi:10.1038/s41586-018-0551-y · Cited by 2,593 · see citing works
Large Pockels effect in micro- and nanostructured barium titanate integrated on silicon
Abel, S., Eltes, F., Ortmann, J. E., Messner, A., Castera, P., Wagner, T., Urbonas, D., Rosa, A., Gutierrez, A. M., Tulli, D., et al. (2019) · Nature Materials · doi:10.1038/s41563-018-0208-0 · Cited by 554 · see citing works
Self-citationA strong electro-optically active lead-free ferroelectric integrated on silicon
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Roadmapping the next generation of silicon photonics
Shekhar, S., Bogaerts, W., Chrostowski, L., Bowers, J. E., Hochberg, M., Soref, R., & Shastri, B. J. (2024) · Nature Communications · doi:10.1038/s41467-024-44750-0 · Cited by 878 · see citing works
An integrated optical modulator operating at cryogenic temperatures
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Lead-Free Perovskite Thin Films with Tailored Pockels-Kerr Effects for Photonics
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- Authors
- Eltes, F., Mai, C., Caimi, D., Kroh, M., Popoff, Y., Winzer, G., Petousi, D., Lischke, S., Ortmann, J. E., Czornomaz, L., Zimmermann, L., Fompeyrine, J., & Abel, S.
- Affiliations
- IBM Research - Zurich (CH)
- Leibniz Institute for High Performance Microelectronics (DE)
- Empa (CH)
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Technische Universität Berlin (DE)
- ORCID
- Venue
- Journal of Lightwave Technology
- Published
- 2019-03-01
- Volume
- 37
- Issue
- 5
- Pages
- 1456-1462
- ISSN
- 0733-8724 (ISSN-L)
- 1558-2213
- OpenAlex
- W2913891200
- Cited by
- 208
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 38 · 2025: 34 · 2024: 31 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 15 · 2021: 24 · 2020: 18 · 2019: 6
- FWCI
- 5.66
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Journal of Lightwave Technology (publishedVersion)
- arXiv (Cornell University) (submittedVersion)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- arXiv (Cornell University)
- Funders
- Swiss National Foundation (200021_159565)
- European Commission (H2020-ICT-2015-25-688579, H2020-ICT-2017-1-780997, FP7-ICT-2013-11-619456)
- Swiss State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (15.0285)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Photonic and Optical Devices
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Advanced Photonic Communication Systems
- Keywords
- barium titanate, Pockels effect, electro-optic modulator, silicon photonics, monolithic integration, back-end-of-line integration, Mach-Zehnder modulator, thin films, photonic integrated circuits, 200 mm wafers, high-speed modulation, low static power consumption
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