Low-loss composite photonic platform based on 2D semiconductor monolayers

The optical properties of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) are known to change dramatically with doping near their excitonic resonances. However, little is known about the effect of doping on the optical properties of TMDs at wavelengths far from these resonances, where the material is transparent and therefore could be leveraged in photonic circuits. We demonstrate the strong electrorefractive response of monolayer tungsten disulfide (WS2) at near-infrared wavelengths (deep in the transparency regime) by integrating it on silicon nitride photonic structures to enhance the light–matter interaction with the monolayer. We show that the doping-induced phase change relative to the change in absorption (|∆n/∆k|) is ~125, which is significantly higher than the |∆n/∆k| observed in materials commonly employed for silicon photonic modulators, including Si and III–V on Si, while accompanied by negligible insertion loss. Strong electrorefractive effects in semiconductor transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs) at near-infrared wavelengths, where the TMDs are transparent, are observed and used to demonstrate photonic devices based on a composite SiN–TMD platform with large phase modulation, minimal induced loss and low electrical power consumption.