Polarization-Insensitive Phase Modulators Based on an Embedded Silicon-Graphene-Silicon Waveguide

A polarization-insensitive phase modulator concept is presented, based on an embedded silicon-graphene-silicon waveguide. Simulation results show that the effective mode index of both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes in the silicon-graphene-silicon waveguide undergoes almost the same variations under different biases across a broad wavelength range, in which the real-part difference is less than 1.2 × 10−3. Based on that, a polarization-insensitive phase modulator is demonstrated, with a 3-dB modulation bandwidth of 135.6 GHz and a wavelength range of over 500 nm. Moreover, it has a compact size of 60 μm, and a low insertion loss of 2.12 dB. The proposed polarization-insensitive waveguide structure could be also applied to Mach-Zehnder modulators and electro-absorption modulators.