2023/01/02 by Weiyu Tong, Tong, Weiyu, Erqi Yang +15
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Advanced Fiber Optic Sensors #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #Doping #FOS: Physical sciences #Fabrication #Indium #Insertion loss #Materials science #Microheater #Optics (physics.optics) #Optoelectronics #Phase shift module #Photonic and Optical Devices #Silicon
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2301.00816
published in arXiv (Cornell University) (Cornell University)
openalex publication_date 2023/01/02 · openalex created_date 2023/01/06 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Thermo-optic (TO) phase shifters are very fundamental units in large-scale active silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs). However, due to the limitation of microheater materials with a trade-off between heating efficiency and absorption loss, designs reported so far typically suffer from slow response time, high power consumption, low yields, and so on. Here, we demonstrate an energy-efficient, fast-response, and low-loss TO phase shifter by introducing hydrogen-doped indium oxide (IHO) films as microheater, and the optimized electron concentration with enhanced mobility endows the IHO high conductivity as well as high near-infrared (NIR) transparency, which allow it to directly contact the silicon waveguide without any insulating layer for efficient tuning and fast response. The TO phase shifter achieves a sub-microsecond response time (970 ns/980 ns) with a π phase shift power consumption of 9.6 mW. And the insertion loss introduced by the IHO microheater is ~ 0.5 dB. The proposed IHO-based microheaters with compatible processing technology illustrate the great potential of such material in the application of large-scale silicon PICs.