Phase change material enabled 2 × 2 silicon nonvolatile optical switch
Xing Yang, Muhammad Shemyal Nisar, Wei Yuan, Fengang Zheng, Liangjun Lu, Jianping Chen, Linjie Zhou
Abstract
Recently, large-scale photonic integrated circuits have seen rapid development. Optical switches are the elementary units used to realize optical routers and processors. However, the high static power and large footprint of silicon electro-optic and thermo-optic switches are becoming an obstacle for further scaling and high-density integration. In this Letter, we demonstrate a <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mo>×</mml:mo> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> nonvolatile silicon Mach–Zehnder optical switch enabled by low-loss phase change material <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">b</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> . Changing the phase state of <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">b</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>2</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:msub> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">S</mml:mi> </mml:mrow> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>3</mml:mn> </mml:msub> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> can switch the optical transmission between the bar and cross paths. As no static power is required to maintain the phase state, it can find promising applications in optical switch matrices and reconfigurable optical circuits.