Silicon Modulator Brings Optical Computing A Step Closer

For decades, silicon has not been considered a favorable material for manipulating light. Electrical Engineering Professor Ray Chen at the University of Texas at Austin and Wei Jiang at Omega Optics in Austin recently developed an electrically driven, compact silicon modulator based on a photonic crystal design that offers significant performance improvements over existing Mach-Zehnder Interferometer (MZI)-based silicon modulators.