Simultaneous wavelength locking of microring modulator array with a single monitoring signal.

A microring modulator array coupled to a common bus waveguide can be used to construct low power, compact and flexible wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) transmitters. However, due to extremely small working bandwidths of the rings, it is challenging to find the right resonant wavelength setting and locking the resonance to an external laser. In the paper, we propose a novel technique enabling simultaneous wavelength locking of a microring modulator array with a single monitor, together with automatically optimizing the wavelength setting.

Coplanar-waveguide-based silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator using a meandering optical waveguide and alternating-side PN junction loading.

We demonstrate a silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator with a coplanar waveguide transmission-line electrode structure using a meandering optical waveguide and alternating-side PN junction loading of the electrodes, which helps suppress the signal distortion caused by the parasitic slot-line mode and improves the electro-optic (EO) bandwidth. The silicon MZM exhibits a π-phase-shift voltage (V) of 4.5 V with an EO 3 dB bandwidth of ∼20  GHz for a 5 mm long phase shifter.

128-Gb/s 100-km transmission with direct detection using silicon photonic Stokes vector receiver and I/Q modulator.

Recently, there is increasing interest in utilizing Stokes vector receiver, which is a direct-detection technique with the capability to digitally track the polarization changes in fibers and decode information in multiple dimensions. Here, we report a monolithically integrated silicon photonic Stokes vector receiver, which consists of one polarization beam splitter, two polarization rotators, one 90-degree optical hybrid, and six germanium photodetectors. Paired with a silicon in-phase/quadrature modulator incorporating a power-tunable carrier in the orthogonal polarization, transmission at 128-Gb/s over 100-km fiber is achieved with direct detection.

High-power dual-fed traveling wave photodetector circuits in silicon photonics.

We introduce the concept of dual-illuminated photodetectors for high-power applications. Illuminating the photodetector on both sides doubles the number of optical channels, boosting DC and RF power handling capability. This concept is demonstrated utilizing multiple-stage dual-illuminated traveling wave photodetector circuits in silicon photonics, showing a maximum DC photocurrent of 112 mA and a 3-dB bandwidth of 40 GHz at 0.