Broadband graphene electro-optic modulators with sub-wavelength thickness

Graphene's featureless optical absorption, ultrahigh carrier mobility, and variable optical absorption by an applied gate voltage enable a new breed of optical modulators with broad optical and electrical bandwidths. Here we report on an electro-optic modulator that integrates single-layer graphene in a sub-wavelength thick, reflective modulator structure. These modulators provide a large degree of design freedom, which allows tailoring of their optical properties to specific needs. Current devices feature an active aperture similar to 100 mu m, and provide uniform modulation with flat frequency response from 1 Hz to > 100 MHz. These novel, low insertion-loss graphene-based modulators offer solutions to a variety of high-speed amplitude modulation tasks that require optical amplitude modulation without phase distortions, a flat frequency response, or ultra-thin geometries, such as for controlling monolithic, high-repetition rate mode-locked lasers or active interferometers. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America