Design of a Low Power Hybrid Electro-Optic Plasmonic Modulator Based on ITO and Graphene

Abstract In this paper, a hybrid plasmonic modulator based on ITO and graphene has been proposed and designed. Graphene and ITO are used in the active region, which increases the light-matter interaction and reduces the device's operating voltage in the proposed modulator. As a result, it increases the extinction ratio (ER), reduces power consumption and device footprint in the proposed modulator compared to similar modulators. The values of 14 dB/µm and 5.4 fJ are obtained for ER and power consumption, respectively. The time-domain finite-difference (FDTD) method is used to simulate the modulator. The integration of a modulator with high light-matter interaction and low power consumption in the silicon-on-insulator platform has significant potential for broadband, compact and efficient communication interconnects and circuits.