The collaboration among Hong Tang, Charles Ahn, and Fred Walker’s groups recently realized a new type of electro-optic modulator based on epitaxial ferroelectric BaTiO3 on silicon. A very high Pockels’ coefficient, up to 213 pm/V, was demonstrated, a record value that is more than six times larger than found in commercial optical modulators based on lithium niobate. The monolithically integrated BaTiO3 optical modulators show modulation bandwidth in the gigahertz regime, which is promising for broadband applications. Our work enables new opportunities to enhance silicon technology with novel materials developed in CRISP.
C. Xiong et al, Nano. Lett. 14, 1419 (2014)
