An electro-optic (EO) modulator composed of EO polymer/silicon hybrid one-dimensional photonic crystal nanobeam waveguides is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The optical field of the photonic crystal nanobeam is designed to concentrate at the nanoscale low refractive index EO polymer region. We have demonstrated enhanced EO modulation efficiencies as a result of the slower group velocity in the 100-μm-long photonic crystal nanobeam phase-shifters. The results agree well with the behavior predicted from band dispersion characteristics, indicating that EO polymer/silicon hybrid photonic crystal nanobeam waveguides are an effective platform for realizing extremely small and ultrafast EO modulators with low operational power.

doi: 10.1063/1.4824421