Recent developments in graphene-based optical modulators

doi:10.1007/s12200-014-0424-4

Front. Optoelectron.

0, Vol. 0

Issue (0) : 277-292 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-014-0424-4

REVIEW ARTICLE

Recent developments in graphene-based optical modulators

Ran HAO(

),Jiamin JIN,Xinchang WEI,Xiaofeng JIN,Xianmin ZHANG,Erping LI(

)

Department of Information Science and Electronics Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China

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Abstract

Graphene has shown promising perspectives in optical active components due to the large active-control of its permittivity-variation. This paper systematically reviews the recent developments of graphene-based optical modulators, including material property, different integration schemes, single-layer graphene-based modulator, multi-layer and few-layer graphene-based modulators, corresponding figure-of-merits, wavelength/temperature tolerance, and graphene-based fiber-optic modulator. The different treatments for graphene’s isotropic and anisotropic property were also discussed. The results showed graphene is an excellent material for enhancing silicon’s weak modulation capability after it is integrated into the silicon platform, and has great potentials for complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible optical devices, showing significant influence on optical interconnects in future integrated optoelectronic circuits.

Keywords dynamic control electro-absorption (EA) effect electro-refraction (ER) effect neff)')" href="#">effective mode index (

neff

) graphene Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) optical modulators

Corresponding Author(s): Ran HAO

Issue Date: 09 September 2014

Cite this article:

Ran HAO,Jiamin JIN,Xinchang WEI, et al. Recent developments in graphene-based optical modulators[J]. Front. Optoelectron., 0, 0(0): 277-292.

URL:

https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/10.1007/s12200-014-0424-4
https://academic.hep.com.cn/foe/EN/Y0/V0/I0/277

Fig.1 Conductivity and permittivity of an infinite graphene sheet (the wavelength is fixed at 1550 nm)（reprinted from Ref. [19]）

Fig.2 (a) 3D view of GESW; (b) real and imaginary parts of effective modal index variation under different chemical potentials for GESW（reprinted from Ref. [19]）

Fig.3 (a) Linear relationship between the real part of effective modal index and the real part of graphene’s in-plane permittivity; (b) linear relationship between the imaginary part of effective modal index and the imaginary part of graphene’s in-plane permittivity（reprinted from Ref. [19]）

Fig.4 (a) Schematic pictures for top view of the MZ modulator configuration; (b) relationship between L_π/ L_max and μ_c; (c) relationship between the applied votages/extinction ratio and μ_c

Fig.5 (a) Schematic pictures for the absorption modulator configuration; (b) relationship between L_{8 dB} and μ_c

Fig.6 Transverse magnetic (TM) polarization where graphene is assumed as isotropic: (a) real and imaginary part of effective modal index variation under different chemical potentials; (b) electric field distribution at μ_c = 0.513 eV; transverse electric (TE) polarization where graphene is assumed as anisotropic: (c) real and imaginary part of effective modal index variation under different chemical potentials; (d) electric field distribution at μ_c = 0.513 eV（reprinted from Ref. [19]）

Fig.7 (a) Schematic pictures for eight-layer graphene embedded MZ modulator configuration; (b) corresponding electric field distribution in one of the arm; (c) relationship between L_π/L_max and Δμ_c; (d) relationship between the applied votages/extinction ratio and Δμ_c（reprinted from Ref. [19]）

Fig.8 (a) Re(neff) with chemical potential variation for monolayer, two separated monolayer, and bi-layer GESW; (b) Im(neff) with chemical potential variation for monolayer, two separated monolayer, and bi-layer GESW; (c) (d) and (e) represent the electric field distribution for TE polarization mode of monolayer, two separated monolayer, and bi-layer GESW under chemical potential of 0 eV, respectively（reprinted from Ref. [38]）

Fig.9 Maximum variation of Re(neff) as function of the number of graphene layer; the inset depicts the energy ratio kg/ktotal（reprinted from Ref. [38]）

Fig.10 (a) Red line depicts the maximum variation Re(neff) as function of incident light wavelength and black line depicts the required length Lπ as function of incident light wavelength; (b) red line depicts the maximum variation Re(neff) as function of temperature and black line depicts the required length Lπ as function of temperature（reprinted from Ref. [38]）

Fig.11 Schematic of the graphene-covered-microfiber structure. The microfiber is sandwiched between low refractive index MgF₂ substrate (with a refractive index of 1.37 at 1.55 μm) and PDMS-supported graphene film（reprinted from Ref. [42]）

Fig.12 Schematic illustration of a graphene coated optical fiber modulator. A thin layer of graphene is wrapped around a microfiber that is a section tapered down from a standard telecom optical fiber （reprinted from Ref. [43]）

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