Abstract
Vanadium dioxide (VO<sub>2</sub>) has emerged as a prominent optical phase change material (OPCM) for creating high performance devices based on hybrid silicon platforms. However, realizing an efficient and compact optical modulator required for Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structures, still remains a major challenge in active Si-platforms enabled by VO<sub>2</sub>. This is mainly due to the simultaneous variation of both real and imaginary parts of the refractive index during the phase transition process, which is a significant issue. A modified MZI structure is proposed in this paper while the refractive index variation issue is overcome by operating in the wavelength range between 1.5 to 1.6 μm including the optical C-band. An indium tin oxide (ITO) layer is considered as the microheater for the thermal excitation. An optimized triggering signal with an amplitude of 12.5 V along with an arm length of 2.35 μm of the MZI device (<i>V</i><sub>π</sub><i>L</i><sub>π</sub> = 30 V∙μm) established a π-shift at the output of the device. The proposed device consumes ~26 pJ for modulating a single bit with a delay of 3.5 ns.
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