Plasmonic modulators break several world records (PDPs at ECOC 2021)
Researchers at the Institute of Electromagnetic Fields (IEF) at ETH Zürich and collaborators presented new solutions for high-speed optical communication enabled by plasmonic modulators. In three post-deadline contributions at the 47th European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC 2021), plasmonic modulators enabled new speed records for both linear and resonant devices and high optical efficiency introducing a new hybrid plasmonic modulator using the 2D-material graphene.
Plasmonic Graphene Organic Hybrid Phase Modulator with 10 μm Length, >70 GHz Bandwidth and 4.5 dB Insertion Loss
The work presented by IEF researcher Ping Ma demonstrates a novel plasmonic graphene-organic hybrid phase modulator featuring the short length and fast speed of plasmonics (10 μm length, bandwidth in excess of 70 GHz), but benefitting from the lower losses of graphene (on-chip insertion losses of 4.5 dB). Successful operation at 100 Gbaud is realised. The presented study reveals the great potential of the plasmonic graphene-organic hybrid device concept – a new device technology that leaves ample room for even higher speed and lower losses. This work was carried out in collaboration with the University of Zurich, the IEF spin-off Polariton Technologies Ltd, and the University of Washington.
Plasmonic racetrack modulator pushes speed boundary 2-fold for resonant modulators
Resonant modulators play an important role in todays short distance optical communication systems due to low optical loss and low driving voltage. However, resonant modulators usually have speed limitations since the light inside the resonator takes some time to react to external inputs. IEF researcher Marco Eppenberger and his colleagues have combined the advantages of resonant modulators with the highest speeds enabled by plasmonics. They were able to show a 2-fold increase of the OOK symbol rate to 220 GBaud transmitted with resonant modulators and achieved a record line-rate of 408 Gbit/s using the 8-PAM format. With this result, the researchers have found and demonstrated a way to increase per-wavelength speeds to 400G for future short-distance optical links. This work was made possible by a collaboration of the IEF with Polariton Technologies Ltd.