Open AccessSubmilliwatt, ultrafast and broadband electro-optic silicon switches
Author(s) -
Po Dong,
Shirong Liao,
Hong Liang,
Roshanak Shafiiha,
Dazeng Feng,
Guoliang Li,
Xuezhe Zheng,
Ashok V. Krishnamoorthy,
Mehdi Asghari
Publication year - 2010
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.18.025225
Subject(s) - materials science , refractive index , optics , silicon , interferometry , broadband , optical switch , ultrashort pulse , silicon photonics , optoelectronics , optical power , mach–zehnder interferometer , switching time , bandwidth (computing) , physics , telecommunications , laser , computer science
We present a broadband 2x2 electro-optic silicon switch with an ultralow switching power and fast switching time based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI). Forward-biased p-i-n junctions are employed to tune the phase of silicon waveguides in the MZI, to achieve a π-phase switching power of 0.6 mW with a drive voltage 0.83 V with a MZI arm length of 4 mm. The 10%-90% switching time is demonstrated to be 6 ns. Optical crosstalk levels lower than -17 dB are obtained for an optical bandwidth of 60 nm. The free carrier induced silicon refractive index change is extracted from the experimental results for the concentration range from 10(16) to 10(17) cm(-3). We find that at the concentration of 10(16) cm(-3), the index change is about twice that calculated by the commonly used index change equation.