High-speed and high-efficiency Si optical modulator with MOS junction, using solid-phase crystallization of polycrystalline silicon

We developed a high-speed and high-efficiency MOS-capacitor-type Si optical modulator (Si-MOD) by applying a low optical loss and a low resistivity of a polycrystalline silicon (poly-Si) gate with large grains. To achieve a low resistivity of a poly-Si film, a P-doped poly-Si film based on Si2H6 solid-phase crystallization (SPC) was developed, which showed a comparable resistivity to that of P-doped single-crystal Si. In addition, high-temperature annealing (HTA) after SPC was effective for realizing low optical loss. We designed the optimum Si-MOD structure and demonstrated a very high modulation efficiency of 0.3 V cm, which is very efficient among the Si-MODs developed thus far. High-speed (15 Gbps) operation was achieved with a small footprint of the 200-µm-long phase shifter and a low drive voltage of 1.5 Vpp at a low optical insertion loss of −2.2 dB and 1.55 µm wavelength.

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