Open AccessPhotothermal Switching Based on Silicon Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Integrated With Light Absorber
Author(s) -
Hanmo Gong,
Xi Chen,
Yurui Qu,
Qiang Li,
Min Yan,
Min Qiu
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
ieee photonics journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 73
eISSN - 1943-0655
pISSN - 1943-0647
DOI - 10.1109/jphot.2016.2550319
Subject(s) - engineered materials, dielectrics and plasmas , photonics and electrooptics
We present an all-optical switch based on photothermal effects in a silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) integrated with a light absorber. The metal-insulator-metal light absorber located near the longer arm of the asymmetric MZI efficiently converts infrared light to heat. Pumped by a continuous-wave 1064-nm laser, the spectral transmittance of the fully etched strip waveguide (half-etched rib waveguide) MZI can be tuned with an efficiency of 38 pm/mW (98.5 pm/mW). Dynamic switching experiments show that the rise/fall time constant of the output probe light is 11.45/10.98 μs (8.25/7.13 μs) for the fully etched (half-etched) MZI.