Towards high speed and low power silicon photonic data links

Silicon is a low-cost material platform in which it is possible to form photonic integrated circuits serving a number of applications from optical communications to sensing. For optical communications applications, e.g. short reach data communication within data centres, the optical modulator is a key component with its capabilities having a significant bearing on the overall performance of the photonic circuit. In this paper we report our recent work on optical modulators in silicon and their integration with CMOS electronics on silicon