Optical Switching in Silicon Nanowaveguide Ring Resonators Based on Kerr Effect and TPA Effect

Abstract

We analyze theoretically the 1×2 low-power all-optical switching in silicon nanowaveguide ring resonators (RR) based on the Kerr effect and two-photon absorption (TPA), and give a comparison between both the all-optical switches. The calculation shows that the switching power of the TPA-RR switch is 3 orders smaller than that of the Kerr-RR switch. The switching time for both the switches is about 100 ps.

Implementation of all-optical synchronous and asynchronous binary up counters using silicon micro-ring resonator

“…Also in Ref. 26, it is shown that the switching power of the Kerr-type ring switches is about three orders larger than that of the TPA-type ring switches. This is because the nonlinear phase shift caused by the Kerr effect is proportional to the self-pumping power.…”

Design of Micro-ring Resonator Based 4 × 4 Optical Router for Photonic Network Applications

“…The corresponding graph for phase shift is shown in Fig. 2 and has been derived using the data of Table 1 [15][16][17]. From this figure, it is observed that only 1.2 mW of average pump power is required to get the desired phase shift of 180 0 .…”

“…S is the effective cross-sectional area of the ring, and I and P are the intensity and power of the optical pump signal, respectively. The non-linear refractive-index change (Δn) due to high intensity optical pump pulse at the working wavelength is given by [15][16][17]:…”

“…4shows that effectively result in a net decrease of the refractive index of the micro-ring waveguide and cause a temporarily blue shift of the micro-ring resonance wavelength. The free-carrier concentration N in the silicon waveguide is generated by TPA, so its rate of generation is given by [15]:…”

“…This pump power induces "two photon absorption" (TPA) in the materials of the silicon waveguide ring. For Gaussian pulses, the relationship between the peak power P and the average power P avg with pulse separation t p and pulse width τ is as follows [15]:…”