Advances in silicon photonic devices for silicon-based optoelectronic applications

Abstract

Ever-increasing bandwidth demand in high-performance computing challenges the current copper interconnect technology. To overcome the bottleneck of the high data rate transmission, various alternative technologies have to be defined. Silicon-based optoelectronics could provide a low-cost solution for high speed interconnects for data center and enterprise. The enabling technologies rely on fundamental building blocks such as silicon-based laser, amplifier and modulator. In this paper, we review recent advances in the development of these photonic components. We describe the fast silicon modulator capable of transmitting data at a rate of 10 Gb/s and beyond. We also present silicon optical amplifier and laser based on stimulated Raman scattering.