High frequency characterization of PZT thin-films deposited by chemical solution deposition on SOI for integrated high speed electro-optic modulators

The increasing demand for high data rates and low power consumption puts silicon photonics at the edge of its capabilities. The heterogeneous integration of optical ferro-electric materials on silicon enhances the functionality of the silicon on insulator (SOI) platform to meet these demands. Lead zirconate titanate (PZT) thin films with a large Pockels coefficient and good optical quality can be directly integrated on SOI waveguides for fast electro-optic modulators. In this work, the relative permittivity and dielectric loss of PZT thin films deposited by chemical solution deposition on SOI substrates are analyzed at high frequencies. We extract & epsilon;r = 1650 - 2129 and tan (& delta;) = 0.170 - 0.209 for the PZT thin films in the frequency range 1-67GHz. We show the possibility of achieving bandwidths beyond 60GHz via a Mach-Zehnder modulator with V & pi; = 7V, suitable for next generation data communication systems.& COPY; 2023 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement