Electro-optic modulation in bulk silicon using surface plasmon resonance

Abstract

We propose and present simulated results for a new design of an optical modulator based on Surface Plasmon Polariton (SPP) resonance. The modulator is realized on a bulk silicon substrate, thus offering an opportunity for front-end integration with electronic circuits. The device consists of a dielectric waveguide evanescently coupled to a SPP mode at the interface between bulk silicon and metal. By using SPP resonance we achieved an ultra-high spectral sensitivity (∼5000 nm/refractive index unit) with large modulation bandwidth (90 nm). For a refractive index change of 0.02, we achieved 100 nm shift in resonance wavelength and a modulation depth of ∼10 dB.