Cascaded-ring-resonator-loaded Mach–Zehnder modulator for enhanced modulation efficiency in wide optical bandwidth

A cascaded-ring-resonator-loaded Mach-Zehnder modulator (CRR-MZM) is presented in which a number of cascaded ring resonators (RRs) are loaded in the interferometer as phase modulators. The ability of the design to provide enhanced modulation efficiency at a wide optical bandwidth is demonstrated in comparison with a conventional single-RR-type modulator without an interferometer. The optimization of RRs for the CRR-MZM is investigated experimentally by measuring the transmission spectra in both intensity and group delay of RRs having various structural parameters. Using the optimized parameters, we fabricated a CRR-MZM with 10 cascaded RRs loaded on each arm of the interferometer on a silicon-on-insulate substrate. The RRs had pin-diodes along the waveguides, which were operated with forward bias voltage. Its modulation efficiency was enhanced by a factor of 4.4 at the expense of additional loss of less than 3.5 dB compared with a standard non-resonant MZM. 10 Gb/s-operations of CRR-MZM were successfully demonstrated using pre-emphasized RF signals with amplitude of 1.5 V-pp in a wavelength range of 2 nm. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America