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2021 6th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT)
Pune, India. Apr 02-04, 2021

Modelling of Integrated Optical Modulator using

Ring Resonator with Graphene assisted SOI Ridge
waveguide
Deepak Shekhawat Rekha Mehra
Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering Department of Electronics and Communication Engineering
Government Engineering College Ajmer, Government Engineering College Ajmer,
Rajsthan, India Rajsthan, India
[email protected]

Abstract— In this paper, integrated optical modulators Consequently, the efficiency of the modulator is also
using ring resonator in graphene assisted silicon-on-insulator increases. The proposed device has been designed in single
waveguide has been designed and simulated using FDTD. The mode SOI waveguide to guide transverse electric mode. The
compact ring resonator of radius 5 μm containing disc type proposed device is designed and simulated using finite-
2021 6th International Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT) | 978-1-7281-8876-8/21/$31.00 ©2021 IEEE | DOI: 10.1109/I2CT51068.2021.9418066

graphene exhibited high intensity switching rate of 10 dB/V. difference time–domain (FDTD) based simulation platform
The paper shows larger shift in resonance wavelength by the to analyze the tunability of the wavelength characteristics of
small variation in the chemical potential of graphene by the RR [5]. Finally, the tuning efficiency has been computed
covering the ring completely with the graphene. The
by varying device parameters, especially the graphene area
wavelength tuning with respect to the external bias gate voltage
and the external potential. The results obtained through the
obtained as high as 1.25 nm/V.
Lumerical’s FDTD simulation are analyzed and validates our
Keywords— Modulator, Ring Resonator, Silicon-on- proposed scheme. The conclusions are made and are
Insulator, Ridge Waveguide, FDTD simulation. included at the end of the paper.

I. INTRODUCTION II. MODELLING OF THE DEVICE AND THE SIMULATION

RESULTS
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) based photonics is growing
rapidly by replacing non-silicon modulators such as lithium The schematic of the RR is shown in Fig. 1(a). Fig. 1 (b)
niobate and silicon nitride based modulators. Optical shows the simulation layout of the proposed design without
modulators in silicon not only paves the way for integrability graphene layer and Fig. 1(c) with graphene layer. The cross-
of other silicon based components like optical filters, sectional view of the proposed device showing graphene and
splitters, phase shifters etc, but also facilitates the electro- metal layers are labelled in Fig. 1(d). The corresponding
optic and thermo-optic tunability by introducing dispersion mode field distribution profile is shown in Fig. 1(e). The
effects using free carrier injection [1]. The shifting of proposed device consists of the bus waveguide, the ring
resonance wavelength occurs by applying external potential waveguide, the top layer graphene as well as the Al2O3
which consequently, introduces optical intensity modulation contact deposited on SiO2 layer. The electric field evolution
in ring resonator (RR) devices [1]. However, weak electro- in the proposed device is depicted in Fig. 1(f).
optic coefficient of silicon needs large value of external The height (hg) and width of the waveguide (wg) is 250
potential to provide a phase shift of π. Thus, shift efficiency nm and 600 nm respectively. The coupling ratio is optimized
of the resonant peak is quite limited. RRs possess various by the simulation to achieve the modulation in the RR. Table
advantages like small bandwidth, large free spectral range I represents the other parameters used for simulation. The
(FSR) and high finesse. This in turn requires less tuning selected Si/SiO2 material combination is suitable with e-
potential to switch the intensity from logic low to logic high, beam lithography technique. The index-contrast between
hence enhancing the tuning efficiency of the modulator. The Si/SiO2 makes high detention of light in the device.
unwanted drifts in resonance due to the fabrication tolerance, Moreover, the device is well-suited for SOI platform and
temperature effects etc., limits the calibrations of the device. complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology.
These limitations can be resolved by optimizing design and
by the usage of graphene interactions [2]. Graphene with its TABLE I. GEOMETRICAL PARAMETERS USED IN THE
extraordinary electrical properties has opened a wide area of SIMULATION
silicon photonics based modulators [3]. Due to easy lab S. Parameters Value
synthesis of graphene, many photonics components, for No.
instance phase-shifters, photo-detectors, modulators, 1. Height of the waveguide (h) 250 nm
attenuators etc., have been demonstrated in silicon with 2. Width of the waveguide (w) 600 nm
embedded graphene [4]. 3. Thickness of the graphene layer 0.1 nm
4. Thickness of the Al2O3 contact 7 nm
In this paper, a compact and energy efficient modulator 5. Simulation platform used FDTD
using graphene in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide of 6. Radius of the RR 5 μm
RR is demonstrated. The introduction of disc shaped 7. Refractive-index of SiO2 1.55
graphene in the proposed ultra-compact RR modulator 8. Refractive-index of Si 3.20
9. Refractive-index of Al2O3 1.6
within the ring and coupling area increases the interaction 10. Simulation platform used FDTD
region of the graphene with the ring and the bus waveguide. 11. Response time 0.2ps

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The transfer function of the modulator can be written as

below [6].
షೕమഏಽ
ா೚ೠ೟೛ೠ೟ ξଵି఑ି௔௘ ഊ
ൌ షೕమഏಽ (1)
ா೔೙೛ೠ೟
ଵି௔ξଵି఑௘ ഊ

Where ߢ is the power coupling coefficient between

straight waveguide and ring, and
ഀಽ
ܽ ൌ ‡š’ି మ
where α is power attenuation coefficient, is the optical
loss factor inside the ring, L is the effective ring length, and λ Fig.1 (d). Cross-sectional view of the proposed ridge waveguide
is the central wavelength of the spectrum (i.e. 1550 nm).

Fig. 1. (a). A single bus waveguide coupled schematic of the RR [7]

Source Fig. 1 (e). Corresponding mode profile of the waveguide core

Bus
Waveguide
Output
Monitor

Fig. 1 (b) Simulation set-up of proposed device without graphene layer in

the FDTD platform

Source
Bus Waveguide Fig. 1 (f). Electric field evolution in the proposed device
Output Monitor

Graphene Layer In the proposed device, the external gate potential is

applied at the electrode to change the chemical potential of
the graphene. Consequently, a change in chemical potential
is observed in the effective refractive-index (ERI) of the
waveguide. Thus, there is a variation in the resonance
wavelength of the RR modulator and can be shifted by
tuning the external biased voltage [8].
The graphene-based electro-optic modulator under
investigation achieves modulation by tuning the Fermi level
of the graphene layers. The applied gate voltage in the
Fig. 1 (c). Simulation set-up of the proposed device with graphene layer in graphene sheet shifts the Fermi level of the material and
the FDTD platform
modifies its optical absorption rate. The modulation in the

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optical absorption rate of graphene modulates the optical The carrier density of the graphene can be changed by
response of the silicon waveguide. The investigation of the applying the voltage on the metal electrode of the gate of the
complete electro-optical response of the modulator requires a device, which can be expressed as [3].
combination of electrical and optical simulations. An ଶ ஶ
illustration of the modulation in graphene's optical ݊௦ = ‫ߝ ׬‬ሾ݂ௗ ሺߝሻ െ ݂ௗ ሺߝ ൅ ʹߤ௖ ሻሿ݀ߝ (1)
గ԰మ ௏ಷమ ଴
absorption with applied bias voltage is shown in Fig. 2.
Where fd (ε) is the Fermi-Dirac distribution function, μc is
the chemical potential and VF is the applied voltage.
The external applied voltage which is used to tune the
chemical potential of the graphene can be defined as [4].
μc = ħνFඥɎɄȁሺܸ଴ െ ܸ஽ ሻȁ (2)
The gate voltage ሺܸ଴ െ ܸ஽ ሻ is responsible for the change
in the chemical potential of the graphene sheet. The
variation of the chemical voltage with the gate voltage is
shown in Fig. 3.

(a)

Fig. 3. The chemical potential of the top graphene sheet as a function of

the gate voltage

(b)
( )

Fig. 4. Transmission spectrum at the output of the proposed device

Fig. 4 shows the output spectrum of the device, if the

external applied voltage is varied from 0V to 4V
(c)
respectively. The rate of wavelength tuning with respect to
Fig. 2. Modulation in graphene's optical absorption with different applied the external bias gate voltage is obtained as high as 1.25
bias voltage
nm/V as observed from the simulated output graph as
depicted in Fig. 4.

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III. CONCLUSIONS [2] F. Zhou, H. Wen, Xiaofeng Jin, “The graphene-based ring resonator,”
Asia Communications and Photonics Conference, Su2A.151, 2017.
The proposed architecture using graphene assisted SOI [3] M. Danaeifar, N. Granpayeh, A. Mohammadi, and A. Setayesh,
waveguide based RR modulator is designed and simulated at “Graphene-based tunable terahertz and infrared band-pass filter,”
different gate potentials. The device is modelled using FDTD Appl. Opt., vol. 52, no. 22, pp. 68–72, 2013.
simulation platform. The larger shift in resonance [4] M. Liu et al., “A graphene-based broadband optical modulator,”
wavelength is observed by varying small chemical potential Nature, vol. 474, no. 7349, pp. 64–67, 2011.
of graphene. The high tuning rate of around 1.25nm/V is [5] [Online] https://www.lumerical.com/products/
achieved by covering ring geometry of the device using [6] B. B. Bhowmik, S. Gupta, “Proposal for an optical multicarrier
graphene. The proposed architecture is compact and suitable generator based on single silicon micro-ring modulator,” Optics
Communications, vol. 349, pp. 132–137, 2015.
for both SOI platform and for CMOS technology. The device
may play an outstanding role for future modulation [7] S. S. Pal, G. K. Bharti, J. K. Rakshit and U. Biswas, "Implementation
of Polarization-Conversion in Ring-Resonator and its Application to
technique. Design All-Optical NOT Logic Gate," 2018 3rd International
Conference for Convergence in Technology (I2CT), Pune, 2018, pp.
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