Robust, efficient, micrometre-scale phase modulators at visible wavelengths

Visible-spectrum silicon nitride thermo-optic phase modulators based on adiabatic micro-ring resonators with a small device footprint and low power consumption, of potential use for applications like augmented-/virtual-reality goggles, quantum information processing circuits and optogenetics, are presented. Optical phase modulators are essential to large-scale integrated photonic systems at visible wavelengths and are promising for many emerging applications. However, current technologies require large device footprints and either high power consumption or high drive voltages, limiting the number of active elements in a visible-spectrum integrated photonic circuit. Here, we demonstrate visible-spectrum silicon nitride thermo-optic phase modulators based on adiabatic micro-ring resonators that offer at least a one-order-of-magnitude reduction in both the device footprint and power consumption compared with waveguide phase modulators. Designed to operate in the strongly over-coupled regime, the micro-resonators provide 1.6 pi phase modulation with minimal amplitude variations, corresponding to modulation losses as small as 0.61 dB. By delocalizing the resonant mode, the adiabatic micro-rings exhibit improved robustness against fabrication variations: compared with regular micro-rings, less than one-third of the power is needed to thermo-optically align the resonances of the adiabatic micro-rings across the chip to the laser frequency.

Automated summary

The study presents visible-spectrum silicon nitride thermo-optic phase modulators based on adiabatic micro-ring resonators, which offer a one-order-of-magnitude reduction in both device footprint and power consumption compared to waveguide phase modulators. These modulators provide 1.6 pi phase modulation with minimal amplitude variations and improved robustness against fabrication variations.