Low power 50 Gb/s silicon traveling wave Mach-Zehnder modulator near 1300 nm

The wavelength band near 1300 nm is attractive for many telecommunications applications, yet there are few results in silicon that demonstrate high-speed modulation in this band. We present the first silicon modulator to operate at 50 Gbps near 1300 nm. We demonstrate an open eye at this speed using a differential 1.5 V-pp signal at 0 V reverse bias, achieving an energy efficiency of 450 fJ/bit. (C) 2013 Optical Society of America