Demonstration of electrooptic modulation at 2165nm using a silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer

We demonstrate electrooptic modulation at a wavelength of 2165nm, using a free-carrier injection-based silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator. The modulator has a V-pi.L figure of merit of 0.12V.mm, and an extinction ratio of -23dB. Optical modulation experiments are performed at bitrates up to 3Gbps. Our results illustrate that optical modulator design methodologies previously developed for telecom-band devices can be successfully applied to produce high-performance devices for a silicon nanophotonic mid-infrared integrated circuit platform. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America