Design of Plasmonic Modulators With Vanadium Dioxide on Silicon-on-Insulator

Abstract

We present design of plasmonic modulators using vanadium dioxide (VO2) as modulating material realized on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer with only 200 nm × 140 nm modulating section within 1 μ m × 3 μm device footprint. By utilising the large refractive index contrast between the metallic and semiconductor phases of VO2, the modulator can achieve a broad working wavelength range from 1100 to 1800 nm around C-band, with a high modulation depth of 21.5 dB/μm. We also analyse effects of using seed layer of different dielectric materials for growing VO2 on modulation index by exploring the mixed combination of VO2 and different dielectric materials. Our device geometries can have potential applications in the development of next-generation miniaturised high-frequency optical modulators in silicon photonics for optical communications.

Keywords

• Plasmonics
• nanophotonics
• subwavelength structures
• optoelectronic materials