Ultra-high efficiency III-V on Si MOS capacitor Mach-Zehnder modulator

High-capacity optical transmitters with reduced size, cost, and power consumption are required to meet growing bandwidth requirements of network systems. A high-modulation-efficiency Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) on an Si platform is a key piece of equipment for these transmitters. Si-MZMs have been widely reported; however their performance is limited by the material properties of Si. To overcome the performance limitations of Si MZMs, we have integrated III-V materials on Si substrate and developed a heterogeneously integrated III-V/Si metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitor phase shifter for constructing ultra-high efficient MZM, in which the n-InGaAsP, p-Si, and SiO2 film are used for constructing the MOS capacitor. The fabricated MZM with the MOS capacitor exhibited a VπL of 0.09 Vcm and insertion loss of ~2 dB. 32-Gbps modulation of the MZM was also demonstrated.