Monolithic electro-optic platform on silicon with bandwidth of 100 GHz and beyond.

Steckler, Daniel; Lischke, Stefan; Yamamoto, Yuji; Wen, Wei-Chen; Peczek, Anna; Beyer, Johannes; Kroh, Aleksandra; Fursenko, Oksana et al. · Nat Commun · 2025

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Extending electro-optic bandwidth of native silicon photonic devices well beyond 100 GHz remains a challenge. We demonstrate a scalable C-band silicon photonic platform monolithically integrating ultra-high speed germanium-silicon electro absorption modulators and fin photodiodes. We apply a delta-layer doping process to incorporate Si into Ge. Two electro-absorption modulator variants with lengths of 40 µm and 20 µm exhibit electro optic 3-dB bandwidths of 100 GHz and well beyond 110 GHz, respectively. Co-integrated GeSi-fin photodiodes achieve 3-dB bandwidths of more than 200 GHz. Involving only platform integrated absorption modulators and fin photodiodes, we demonstrate open-eyes in a large signal experiment at 140 Gbit/s. This work establishes an important milestone for next generation optical communication technology.