Nonreciprocal Light Propagation in a Cascaded All-Silicon Microring Modulator

Optical isolators and circulators are critical building blocks for large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Among the several methods proposed to realize such nonreciprocal devices, including heterogeneous integration with garnet-based materials or using nonlinearities, dynamic modulation of the waveguide properties is a potentially practical and easily accessible method. However, most proposals relying on this method rely on modulators with a very large footprint, limiting their practical applicability. This paper overcomes this issue by presenting a method to achieve nonreciprocal optical transmission taking advantage of compact ring modulators. We use a cascaded system of microring modulators with a footprint as small as 15 mu m x 220 mu m and propose that, by tuning the relative time delay between the RF driving signals and the optical delay between the modulators, nonreciprocal transmission can be achieved. We present a detailed theoretical analysis of our design and investigate the origin of the asymmetric transmission. The modulators were designed and fabricated on IMEC's Silicon-on-Insulator platform iSiPP50G. We achieve a 16 dB difference between forward and backward optical signals at a driving voltage (V-pp) of 8 V at 6 GHz. Moreover, we analyze the impact of fabrication imperfections on the device performance. Our work leads to a significant reduction in device footprint compared to formerly explored solutions using dynamic modulation and is well suited for monolithic integration with photonic integrated circuits.

Automated summary

This paper presents a method to achieve nonreciprocal optical transmission using compact ring modulators. By tuning the relative time delay between the RF driving signals and the optical delay between the modulators, nonreciprocal transmission can be achieved. The design utilizes a cascaded system of microring modulators with a small footprint, achieving a 16 dB difference between forward and backward optical signals.