Subwavelength Grating Metamaterial Racetrack Resonator for Sensing and Modulation

Subwavelength grating metamaterial racetrack ring resonator (SGMRTR) increases the coupling strength between the bus waveguide and the ring resonator and thus better extinction ratio can be achieved. In this paper, we summarized our recent work on SGMRTRs. We show that with the improved extinction ratio, the intrinsic detection limit of refractive index sensors can be pushed closer to the theoretical limit. We have also demonstrated the first high-speed optical modulator based on electro-optic polymer infiltrated subwavelength grating metamaterial waveguide ring resonator with measured 3-dB bandwidth of 41.4 GHz. The power consumption for digital communication is estimated to be 2.55 fJ/bit.