C-Band Silicon Waveguide Modulation with 50-Gbit/s NRZ-OOK over 10-km SMF and DSF

A low-power-consumption single-arm-driven silicon (Si) Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) operated at C-band ( $\lambda =1550$ nm) for non-return-to-zero on-off-keying (NRZ-OOK) transmission beyond 50 Gbit/s over 10-km single-mode fiber (SMF) and dispersion-shift fiber (DSF) is demonstrated to guarantee the IEEE 802.3bs standardized 400GBASE-FR8/LR8 operation. The Si MZM exhibits asymmetric waveguide arms and 2-mm-contact-length phase shifter under carrier depletion operation in its p-n junction, which is DC biased as low as 2 V to provide a low $\text{V}_{\pi }\text{L}$ product of $0.909~\text {V}\cdot \text {cm}$. For the error-free transmission of the NRZ-OOK data-stream, the single-arm-driven Si MZM supports the highest data rates of 53, 53 and 50 Gbit/s over optical back-to-back, 2-km SMF and 10-km DSF transmissions, respectively. The 50-Gbit/s receiving power penalties are respectively 0.2 and 0.25 dB after 2-km SMF and 10-km DSF propagation. ? 1965-2012 IEEE.