Improvement of extinction in optically-controlled silicon thermo-optic switch based on micro-ring resonator with distinct probe signal

Abstract

Herein, an optically controlled thermo-optic switch based on a micro-ring resonator is proposed and demonstrated. The latter converts pump light to heat using a metal layer close to the waveguides to generate a phase shift based on the thermo-optic effect, thereby realizing the switching operation. By using the probe and pump lights of the TE and TM modes, respectively, optical absorption is properly designed and an extinction ratio higher than that reported in the previous study is achieved. Further, 10–90 % switching times are measured to be 0.71 μs and 2.66 μs for the rising time and cooling time of temporal response, respectively. The burst-switching measurements reveal an on/off switching ratio of 7.3 dB at the through-port and 7.2 dB at the drop port, with a pump power of 16.8 mW.

Quantification of 288 K local photothermal heating and miniaturization in Si plasmonic waveguides integrated with resonators

“…Also, moderate speed optical memories are important in order to realize optical data buffering memories and alloptical data processing where optical burst switching is reasonable for relatively slow TO responses. 10) So far, optical memories based on phase change materials (PCMs), such as GeSbTe, [11][12][13] single carbon nanotubes, 14) magnetic tunnel junctions, 15) and ferromagnetic metal 16) have been reported.…”

Improvement of photothermal heating efficiency of Si plasmonic waveguide heaters with ring resonators

“…30,31) Photothermal efficiency of 106 K mW −1 will enable more compact photothermal optical switches. 32,33) For example, Si plasmonic heaters can be applied in the desorption of the adsorbed gas molecules on plasmonic optical gas sensors, local chemical reaction with catalyst in the fields of biology, life science, chemistry and medicine.…”