A 325 GHz analog photonic link (APL) is demonstrated by employing a recently reported 500 GHz bandwidth Mach-Zehnder modulator and a uni-travelling carrier photodetector. The link features a flat response over more than 100 GHz, only limited by the frequency range of the electrical spectrum analyzer extension module used. To our knowledge, this is the highest-frequency and most broadband APL characterized to date. The proposed approach may be useful to implement radio-over-fiber links at THz frequencies in future wireless applications and to enable microwave photonics functions to reach the sub-millimeter and THz range.

We report on light generation via inelastic electron tunneling in a metal-oxide-semiconductor (MOS) junction, which is directly integrated within a silicon photonic waveguide. We generate an optical power of 6.8 pW. © 2019 The Author(s)

We discuss fundamentals and fabrication of integrated plasmonic Fabry-Pérot and ring resonators used for electro-optic modulation. The ring resonator’s ability to bypass loss and its simplicity in fabrication gives clear preference to those.

Demonstration of a plasmonic IQ modulator operating at 100 GBd QPSK and at 32 GBd 16QAM. The device is orders of magnitude smaller than any photonic counterpart.

To cope with the high bandwidth requirements of wireless applications1, carrier frequencies are shifting towards the millimetre-wave and terahertz bands2-5. Conversely, data is normally transported to remote wireless antennas by optical fibres. Therefore, full transparency and flexibility to switch between optical and wireless domains would be desirable6,7. Here, we demonstrate for the first time a direct wireless-to-optical receiver in a transparent optical link. We successfully transmit 20 and 10 Gbit/s over wireless distances of 1 and 5 m at a carrier frequency of 60 GHz, respectively. Key to the breakthrough was a plasmonic mixer directly mapping the wireless information onto optical signals. The plasmonic scheme with its subwavelength feature and pronounced field confinement provides a built-in field enhancement of up to 90'000 over the incident field in an ultra-compact and CMOS compatible structure. The plasmonic mixer is not limited by electronic speed and thus compatible with future terahertz technologies.

Plasmonic-organic hybrid technology affords the potential for exceptional bandwidth, extremely small footprint, and very low drive voltages resulting in substantially improved energy efficiency for devices. Optical loss is a well-recognized problem for plasmonic technologies but is currently addressed with some notable success. Thereby, the optimization of electrically poled organic electro-optic (OEO) materials is most critical since a large electro-optical coefficient allows implementation of short active device structures that result in lower insertion losses and lower voltage-length products. Most importantly, short structures also guarantee largest bandwidths and best energy efficiencies. Yet, an efficient optimization of in-device performance of OEO materials requires the development of novel computational simulation methods, especially as waveguide width dimensions reach tens of nanometers in plasmonic waveguides and as electrode surface/material interfacial effects become more and more dominant. The focus of this communication is on novel multi-scale modeling methods, including coarse-grained Monte Carlo statistical mechanical simulations combined with quantum mechanical methods to simulate and analyze the linear and nonlinear optical properties for high chromophore number density solid-state OEO materials. New chromophores are developed with the assistance of theory and may lead to an order of magnitude improvement in device performance.

In the version of this Letter originally published online, the ORCID number, 0000-0002-8900-3237, of the author A. Josten was missing; and in Fig. 2b, in the y axis label, ‘×105’should have been ‘×103’. These errors have now been corrected in all versions.

We demonstrate a plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator with a flat frequency response exceeding 170 GHz. Modulation of the device is shown at 100 GBd NRZ and 60 GBd PAM-4.

We demonstrate a plasmonic Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulator with a flat frequency response exceeding 170 GHz. The modulator comprises two phase modulators exploiting the Pockels effect of an organic electro-optic material in plasmonic slot waveguides. We further show modulation at 100 GBd NRZ and 60 GBd PAM-4. The electrical drive signals were generated using a 100 GSa/s digital to analog converter (DAC). The high-speed and small-scale devices are relevant for next-generation optical interconnects.

We demonstrate a two times reduction of plasmonic modulator loss by exploiting material resonances of organic electro-optic materials. We measure enhanced in-device electro-optic coefficients with record values of r33=325pm/V reducing UπL threefold.

We suggest an integrated mid-IR light source based on difference frequency generation. Using modal phase matching in hybrid plasmonic waveguides we show a tunable, on-chip mid-IR source concept.

Plasmonic interconnects are proposed as a solution to offer interconnect densities not to be matched by electronics and with bandwidths exceeding 100 GHz. Key elements such as ultrafast and compact plasmonic modulators and detectors have already been tested and first demonstrations confirm the viability of the technology.

We report on an optical chip-to-chip interconnect solution, thereby demonstrating plasmonics as a solution for ultra-dense, high-speed short-reach communications. The interconnect comprises a densely integrated plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator array that is packaged with standard driving electronics. On the receiver side, a germanium photodetector array is integrated with trans-impedance amplifiers. A multicore fiber provides a compact optical interface to the array. We demonstrate 4 x 20 Gb/s on-off keying signaling with direct detection.

We report on high-extinction-ratio, ultrafast plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulators. We demonstrate data modulation at line rates up to 72 Gbit/s (BPSK) and 108 Gbit/s (4-ASK). The driving voltages are U d = 4 and 2.5 V p for 12.5 and 25 μm short devices, respectively. The frequency response shows no bandwidth limitations up to 70 GHz. Static characterizations indicate extinction ratios > 25 dB.

We report on in-device electro-optic coefficients r33 of up to 275pm/V in plasmonic-organic hybrid modulators. We find ideal waveguide geometries for highest electro-optic coefficients, for lowest losses and shortest devices with the lowest UπL product.

We report on a plasmonic modulator integrated into a four-leaf-clover antenna. The antenna provides electric field enhancement of 92'000 in the active part of the modulator, which allows efficient conversion of millimeter-wave signals into the optical domain.

We demonstrate an on-chip 60 GHz phased array antenna feeder with record-low footprint (active area <;2.5μm2), based on ultra-compact plasmonic modulators. The chip footprint is only limited by the contact pads size. Our implementation also enables ultra-fast steering with less than 1 ns reconfiguration time.

We demonstrate the first chip-to-chip interconnect utilizing a densely integrated plasmonic Mach-Zehnder modulator array operating at 3 × 10 Gbit/s. A multicore fiber provides a compact optical interface, while the receiver consists of germanium photodetectors.