Abstract
In this paper, a design for a high extinction ratio Mach-Zehnder optical modulator is proposed. The switchable refractive index of the germanium-antimony-selenium-tellurium (GSST) phase change material is employed to induce destructive interference between the waves passing through Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) arms and to realize amplitude modulation. A novel, to the best of our knowledge, asymmetric input splitter is designed for the MZI to compensate for unwanted amplitude differences between MZI arms and increase the modulator performance. Three-dimensional finite-difference-time-domain simulations show a very high extinction ratio (ER) and low insertion loss (IL) of 45 and 2dB, respectively, for the designed modulator at the wavelength of 1550nm. Moreover, the ER is above 22dB, and the IL is below 3.5dB in the wavelength range of 1500-1600nm. The thermal excitation process of GSST is also simulated using the finite-element method, and the speed and energy consumption of the modulator are estimated.
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