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Electroabsorption optical modulator
United States Patent
10,908,438 | |
February 2, 2021 | |
View the Complete Patent at the US Patent & Trademark Office | |
An electroabsorption modulator that operates based on electroabsorption of a surface plasmon polariton mode is improved by various structural changes and/or selection of different materials. For example, at least a portion of the waveguide may be made to be conductive, e.g., by doping. Also, layers that make up the modulator structure may be placed along sides of waveguides in addition to or instead of simply on the top thereof. High permittivity gate dielectric materials may be employed. Also, materials other than ITO may be employed as a transparent conductor. Such an improved plasmonic electroabsorption modulator can be fabricated using standard semiconductor processing techniques and may be integrated with standard photonic integrated circuits, including silicon photonics and compound semiconductor-based platforms. Advantageously, high-speed, low-voltage operation over a wide spectrum of wavelengths may be achieved. | |
15/ 909,767 | |
March 1, 2018 | |
1/1 | |
G02F 1/025 (20060101)G02F 1/00 (20060101)G02F 1/015 (20060101) | |
GOVERNMENT RIGHTS IN THIS INVENTION This invention was made with United States Government support under Contract No. DE-NA0003525 between National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC and the United States Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration. The United States Government has certain rights in this invention. |