Dynamically reconfigurable nanoscale modulators utilizing coupled hybrid plasmonics

The balance between extinction ratio (ER) and insertion loss (IL) dictates strict trade-off when designing travelling-wave electro-optic modulators. This in turn entails significant compromise in device footprint (L(3dB)) or energy consumption (E). In this work, we report a nanoscale modulator architecture that alleviates this trade-off while providing dynamic reconfigurability that was previously unattainable. This is achieved with the aide of three mechanisms: (1) Utilization of epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) effect, which maximizes the attainable attenuation that an ultra-thin active material can inflict on an optical mode. (2) Non-resonant coupled-plasmonic structure which supports modes with athermal long-range propagation. (3) Triode-like biasing scheme for flexible manipulation of field symmetry and subsequently waveguide attributes. By electrically inducing indium tin oxide (ITO) to be in a local ENZ state, we show that a Si/ITO/HfO(2)/Al/HfO(2)/ITO/Si coupled-plasmonic waveguide can provide amplitude modulation with ER = 4.83 dB/μm, IL = 0.03 dB/μm, L(3dB) = 622 nm, and E = 14.8 fJ, showing at least an order of magnitude improvement in modulator figure-of-merit and power efficiency compared to other waveguide platforms. Employing different biasing permutations, the same waveguide can then be reconfigured for phase and 4-quadrature-amplitude modulation, with actively device length of only 5.53 μm and 17.78 μm respectively.