Photoconductive effect on p-i-p micro-heaters integrated in silicon microring resonators.

We study the photoconductive effect of a p-i-p micro-heater integrated in a microring resonator. Due to the surface state absorption (SSA) and two photon absorption (TPA) of optical wave around 1550 nm, free carriers are generated in the silicon waveguide, leading to the modulation of silicon conductivity and thus the current flowing through it. The current-voltage (I-V) response of the p-i-p diode is dependent on the bias voltage and can be divided into ohmic-law regime and space-charge-limited regime. The resonance peak current is more sensitive to optical power in the ohmic-law regime. Such a phenomenon can also be utilized to monitor the optical power in the waveguide.