Advancing Plasmonic Modulation: CMOS-Compatible MIS-Schottky Devices for Integrated Photonics

Overview

Abstract

Recent developments in silicon-integrated plasmonics offer immense potential for miniaturized photonic circuits. In this work, we demonstrate a CMOS-compatible metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) plasmonic modulator based on a Schottky heterojunction. Our device integrates amorphous aluminum, silica, and indium tin oxide on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. We achieve remarkable performance with an extinction ratio of 1 dB/μm and low insertion loss of 0.128 dB/μm in a 10 μm-long waveguide. Simulations highlight the strong modal confinement enabled by plasmonic waveguides. These results advance the integration of plasmonics with CMOS technology, opening the door to high-performance, compact optical modulators.

Brief Biography

Dr. Nasir Alfaraj is a KAUST Ibn Rushd Postdoctoral Fellow at The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He earned his Ph.D. in electrical engineering from King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Prior to this, he received his BSc (2013) and MSc (2015) degrees in electrical engineering from Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, USA, and KAUST, respectively. Dr. Alfaraj is a member of the Helmy Group, and his research interests include the growth, fabrication, and characterization of CMOS-compatible semiconductor nanostructures and devices for nanophotonic applications using hybrid metallic architectures.