Compact 2×2 parabolic multimode interference thermo–optic switches based on fluorinated photopolymer

In this work, a dual-side parabolic structural(DSPS) multimode interference(MMI) thermo–optic(TO) waveguide switch is designed and fabricated by using novel low-loss fluorinated photopolymer materials. Comparing with the traditional dual-side linear structural(DSLS) MMI device, the effective length of the MMI coupling region proposed can be effectively reduced by 40%. The thermal stability of the waveguide material is analyzed, and the optical characteristics of the switching chip are simulated. The actual performances of the entire MMI switch are measured with an insertion loss of7 dB, switching power of 15 m W and an extinction ratio of 28 dB. In contrast to the traditional MMI optical switch, the new type of parabolic structural MMI TO waveguide switch exhibits lower power consumption and larger extinction ratio. The compact fluorinated polymer MMI TO switches are suitable well for realizing miniaturization, high-properties, and lower cost of photonic integrated circuits.

A New Type of Fiber-induced Optically Controllable Silicon-loaded Millimeter Waveguide Switch

In this paper,a new type of optically controllable silicon slab loaded E-plane millimeterwave rectangular waveguide switch is presented.It uses SELFOC lens to couple optical puls-es to silicon slab with optical fiber.The on/off ratio reaches 42dB,the front fringe of suchkind swith is less than 0.05μs,and the insertion loss is less than 1dB in the full band of 26.5GHz to 40GHz.

Simulation and Design of a Submicron Ultrafast Plasmonic Switch Based on Nonlinear Doped Silicon MIM Waveguide

We propose and analyze a submicron stub-assisted ultrafast all-optical plasmonic switch based on nonlinear MIM waveguide. It is constructed by two silicon stub filters sandwiched by silver cladding. The signal wavelength is assumed to be 1550 nm. The simulation results show a ?14.66 dB extinction ratio. Downscaling the silicon waveguide in MIM structure leads to enhancement of the effective Kerr nonlinearity due to tight mode confinement. Also, using O+ ions implanted into silicon, the switching time less than 10 ps and a delay time less than 8 fs are achieved. The overall length of the switch is 550 nm.

Optimized design and fabrication of nanosecond response electro optic switch based on ultraviolet-curable polymers

A nanosecond response waveguide electro-optic （EO） switch based on ultraviolet （UV） sensitive polymers of Norland optical adhesive （NOA73） and Dispersed Red 1 （DR1） doped SU-8 （DR1/SU-8） is designed and fabricated. The absorption properties, refractive indexes, and surface morphologies of NOA73 film are characterized. The single-mode transmission condition is computed by the effective index method, and the percentage of optical field distributed in EO layer is optimized to be 93.78 %. By means of spin-coating, thermal evaporation, photolithography, and inductively coupled plasma etching, a Mach-Zehnder inverted-rib waveguide EO switch with micro-strip line electrode is fabricated on a silicon substrate. Scanning electron microscope characterization proves the physic-chemical compatibility between NOA73 cladding and DR1/SU-8 core material. The optical transmission loss of the fabricated switch is measured to be 2.5 dB/cm. The rise time and fall time of switching are 3.199 ns and 2.559 ns, respectively. These results indicate that the inverted-rib wave- guide based on UV-curable polymers can effectively reduce the optical transmission loss and improve the time response performance of an EO switch.

All-optical switch and transistor based on coherent light-controlled single two-level atom coupling with two nanowires

Atom–nanowire coupling system is a promising platform for optical quantum information processing. Unlike the previous designing of optical switch and transistor requiring a dedicated multi-level emitter and high fineness microcavity,a new proposal is put forward which contains a single two-level atom asymmetrically coupled with two nanowires. Singleemitter manipulation of photonic signals for bilateral coherent incident is clear now, since we specify atomic saturation nonlinearity into three contributions which brings us a new approach to realizing light-controlled-light at weak light and single-atom levels. An efficient optically controllable switch based on self-matching-induced-block and a concise optical transistor are proposed. Our findings show potential applications in full-optical devices.

Novel wavelength-accurate InP-based arrayed waveguide grating

A 13-channel, InP-based arrayed waveguide grating （AWG） is designed and fabricated in which the on-chip loss of the central channel is about -5 dB and the crosstalk is less than -23 dB in the center of the spectrum response. However, the central wavelength and channel spacing are deviated from the design values. To improve their accuracy, an optimized design is adopted to compensate the process error. As a result, the central wavelength 1549.9 nm and channel spacing 1.59 nm are obtained in the experiment, while their design values are 1549.32 nm and 1.6 nm, respectively. The route capability and thermo-optic characteristic of the AWG are also discussed in detail.

Research Progress on Multimode Interference Switches

Optical switches are key components for constructing optical communication networks, so it is necessary to design optical switches and optical switch arrays with high performance and low cost. As one type of optical switches, the multimode interference(MMI) switches have received considerable attention due to their unique merits. The structures and operation principles of various types of MMI switches are introduced, and the recent progresses of MMI switches are also discussed.

Optical Waveguide Switches Employing Total-Internal-Reflection (TIR) Effect (Invited Paper)

In this paper, our recent research work on the total-internal-reflection optical switch is presented. The thermo-optic effect of polymeric materials and the photon-induced carrier effect of GaAlAs/GaAs are used in our devices.

Vertically Integrated Thermo-Optic Waveguide Switch Using Optical Polymers

We propose and fabricate a vertically integrated thermo-optic waveguide switch. It controls the optical path between two vertically stacked waveguides using the thermo-optic effect of optical polymer. The measured crosstalk is less than -10 dB.

二氧化硅平面波导集成光开关器件研究

基于二氧化硅平面光波导平台,设计并制作了一种多模干涉马赫曾德型的低功耗热光开关。该器件结合了多模干涉耦合器的稳定性及二氧化硅波导和热光开关的低损耗等优势。经仿真,对器件参数进行了优化,并讨论了金属层与波导的间距对传输光强及功耗的影响。测试结果表明,该器件的结构稳定,偏振依赖小,插入损耗低于2 dB,能实现开关的转换,功耗为450 mW左右,开关响应时间为103µs和113µs,在1564 nm工作波长下消光比超过16 dB,尺寸为2.30 cm×0.25 mm。该器件不仅与互补金属氧化物半导体工艺相兼容,同时与光纤之间也有较好的兼容性。二氧化硅波导光开关器件具有成本低,产量大,性能稳定的优势,能给光通信及光计算的未来发展提供可靠的基础。

Numerical investigations of an optical switch based on a silicon stripe waveguide embedded with vanadium dioxide layers

A novel scheme for the design of an ultra-compact and high-performance optical switch is proposed and investigated numerically. Based on a standard silicon(Si) photonic stripe waveguide, a section of hyperbolic metamaterials(HMM) consisting of 20-pair alternating vanadium dioxide (VO_2)∕Si thin layers is inserted to realize the switching of fundamental TE mode propagation. Finite-element-method simulation results show that, with the help of an HMM with a size of 400 nm × 220 nm × 200 nm(width × height × length), the ON/OFF switching for fundamental TE mode propagation in an Si waveguide can be characterized by modulation depth(MD) of5.6 d B and insertion loss(IL) of 1.25 dB. It also allows for a relatively wide operating bandwidth of 215 nm maintaining MD > 5 dB and IL < 1.25 dB. Furthermore, we discuss that the tungsten-doped VO_2 layers could be useful for reducing metal-insulator-transition temperature and thus improving switching performance. In general, our findings may provide some useful ideas for optical switch design and application in an on-chip all-optical communication system with a demanding integration level.

All-optical switching in silicon photonic waveguides with an epsilon-near-zero resonant cavity [Invited]

Strong nonlinearity of plasmonic metamaterials can be designed near their effective plasma frequency in the epsilon-near-zero(ENZ) regime. We explore the realization of an all-optical modulator based on the Au nonlinearity using an ENZ cavity formed by a few Au nanorods inside a Si photonic waveguide. The resulting modulator has robust performance with a modulation depth of about 30 dB/μm and loss less than 0.8 dB for switching energies below 600 fJ. The modulator provides a double advantage of high mode transmission and strong nonlinearity enhancement in the few-nanorod-based design.

Optimization of Waveguide Structure for Tunable Optical Switch in Si/SiGe System

A new electro-optical device using Si/SiGe-system with two parallel ridge waveguides is proposed for optical switching and the optimization of the structure for a single mode operation is investigated.

Analysis of the thermo-optic effect in lateral-carrier-injection SOI ridge waveguide devices

The thermo-optic effect in the lateral-carrier-injection pin junction SOI ridge waveguide is analyzed according to the thermal field equation.Numerical analysis and experimental results show that the thermo-optic effect caused by carrier injection is significant in such devices,especially for small structure ones.For a device with a 1000μm modulation length,the refractive index rise introduced by heat accounts for 1/8 of the total effect under normal working conditions.A proposal of adjusting the electrode position to cool the devices to diminish the thermal-optic effect is put forward.

A Mach-Zehnder interferometer electro-optic switch with ultralow voltage-length product using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguide

By using poled-polymer/silicon slot waveguides in the active region and the Pockels effect of the poled-polymer,we propose a kind of Mach-Zehnder interferometer(MZI) electro-optic(EO) switch operated at 1 550 nm.Structural parameters are optimized for realizing normal switching function.Dependencies of switching characteristics on the slot waveguide parameters are investigated.For the silicon strip with dimension of 170 nm×300 nm,as the slot width varies from 50 nm to 100 nm,the switching voltage can be as low as 1.0 V with active region length of only 0.17–0.35 mm,and the length of the whole device is only about 770–950 μm.The voltage-length product of this switching structure is only 0.17–0.35 V·mm,and it is at least 19–40 times smaller than that of the traditional polymer MZI EO switch,which is 6.69 V·mm.Compared with our previously reported MZI EO switches,this switch exhibits some superior characteristics,including low switching voltage,compact device size and small wavelength dependency.

基于MZI结构的二氧化硅波导模式选择开关

设计并且制备了一种基于马赫-曾德尔干涉仪结构的二氧化硅波导模式选择开关。该器件由不对称定向耦合器及金属电极组成。通过金属电极产生的热场改变单模波导中的模式相位,实现了单模波导中E00模式向多模波导中E10模式的转换。器件采用标准CMOS工艺制备,在调制臂两侧引入空气槽,提高热场调制效率,降低开关功耗。实验结果表明,当输入E00模式时,输出端的串扰小于−17.13 dB,消光比大于16.7 dB;当输入E10模式时,输出端的串扰小于−19.84 dB,消光比大于22.5 dB。模式开关的上升时间和下降时间分别为0.7 ms和1 ms。该模式选择开关在模分复用系统中具有良好的应用前景。

基于铌酸锂薄膜波导的电光调谐光栅辅助定向耦合器研究

提出并实验研究了一种基于铌酸锂薄膜光波导的电光调谐的光栅辅助定向耦合器。该耦合器由单模与双模脊形波导及制作于双模波导侧壁的长周期光栅构成。长周期光栅的引入补偿了单模与双模波导中基模的相位失配,可在共振波长实现两波导中基模的高效耦合。进一步地,在双模脊形波导两侧制作调谐电极实现了高速、低驱动电压的电光调谐功能。优化了器件的制作工艺,并采用单次干法刻蚀将耦合器的光栅与波导同步制作于X切铌酸锂薄膜上。测试结果表明所制作的器件在1595.3 nm波长处实现了14.8 dB的隔离度,其电光调谐效率为0.38 nm/V(1595.3 nm~1599.0 nm),热光调谐效率为0.14 nm/℃(25℃~50℃)。该器件可用于实现可调谐滤波、滤模、电光调制及高灵敏度温度传感等功能。

Experimental demonstration of a flexible-grid 1×(2×3)mode-and wavelength-selective switch using silicon microring resonators and counter-tapered couplers

A flexible-grid 1×(2×3)mode-and wavelength-selective switch which comprises counter-tapered couplers and silicon microring resonators has been proposed,optimized,and demonstrated experimentally in this work.By carefully thermally tuning phase shifters and silicon microring resonators,mode and wavelength signals can be independently and flexibly conveyed to any one of the output ports,and different bandwidths can be generated as desired.The particle swarm optimization algorithm and finite difference time-domain method are employed to optimize structural parameters of the twomode(de)multiplexer and crossing waveguide.The bandwidth-tunable wavelength-selective optical router composed of12 microring resonators is studied by taking advantage of the transfer matrix method.Measurement results show that,for the fabricated module,cross talk less than-10.18 dB,an extinction ratio larger than 17.41 d B,an in-band ripple lower than0.79 dB,and a 3-dB bandwidth changing from 0.38 to 1.05 nm are obtained,as the wavelength-channel spacing is 0.40 nm.The corresponding response time is measured to be 13.64μs.

高容量波分复用网络中下一代光交叉连接(OXC)的设计

为满足高容量波分复用网络的应用需求,设计下一代光交叉连接(Optical Cross Connection,OXC)。鉴于通信技术的迅速发展和网络需求的不断增长,主要介绍波分复用(Wavelength Division Multiplexing,WDM)网络基础知识和下一代OXC的设计要求,分析液晶光开关、微机电系统(Micro-Electro-Mechanical System,MEMS)光开关、光波导开关、光学包交换技术以及自适应调度与控制算法等关键设备与技术的优缺点和应用场景。研究结果表明,采用液晶光开关和光波导光开关等设备,能实现高容量波分复用网络的高容量传输,从而提高网络的灵活性、降低能耗。