Wavelength-selective 2  ×  2 optical switch based on a Ge₂Sb₂Te₅-assisted microring

Abstract

A novel wavelength-selective 2 × 2 optical switch based on a Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST)-assisted microring-resonator (MRR) is proposed. The present GST-assisted MRR consists of two access optical waveguides and an MRR coupled with a bent GST-loaded silicon photonic waveguide. The 2 × 2 optical switch is switched ON or OFF by modifying the GST state to be crystalline or amorphous. In particular, the microring waveguide and the bent GST-loaded waveguide are designed to satisfy the phase-matching condition when the GST is crystalline. As a result, the MRR becomes highly lossy and the resonance peak is depressed significantly. On the other hand, when it is off, there is little coupling due to the significant phase mismatching. Consequently, one has a low-loss transmission at the drop port for the resonance wavelength. In this paper, the simulation using the three-dimensional finite-difference method shows that the extinction ratio of the designed photonic switch is ∼ 20 dB at the resonance wavelength, while the excess losses at the through port and drop port are 0.9 dB and 2 dB. In particular, the resonance wavelength changes little between the ON and OFF states, which makes it suitable for multichannel wavelength-division-multiplexing systems.

Mutual-Coupling in High-Q Silicon Dual-Concentric Micro-Ring/Racetrack Resonator

“…RIVEN by the demand of new-generation communication and large-scale computing, such as big data, cloud computing, the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and so on, the silicon photonics has become an attractive and promising solution due to its advantages of small size, low cost and high integration. Basic silicon waveguide components have applications in sensors [1], [2], filters [3], [4], optical switches/modulators [5]- [7], [8], delayer [9], [10], polarization/wavelength/mode (de)multiplexer [11]- [13], and so on. Though have been well investigated, silicon photonics still deserves further study to explore its potentials and applications in broader fields.…”

Optical Switch Based on Ge2Sb2Se4Te1-Assisted Racetrack Microring

“…In addition, MRR has been used in wavelength-selective optical switching. In [3], the designed photonic switch shows an ER of ∼20 dB at the resonance wavelength. Meanwhile, the excess losses at the through port and drop port are 0.9 dB and 2 dB, respectively.…”

“…The optical switch matrix is crucial for large-scale optical cross connect (OXC). Among different platforms, silicon photonics exhibit great promise in data centers, cloud computing and internet connections [1][2][3]. A silicon switch matrix can be constructed by the typically used microring (MR) and Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) building block.…”

“…Optical phase-change materials (O-PCMs), including two-dimensional O-PCMs of graphene [7,8], transition metal carbide/nitride [9], transition metal dichalcogenide [10], three-dimensional O-PCMs of VO 2 [11,12], Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST) [3,13], and Ge 2 Sb 2 Se 4 Te 1 (GSST), as well as indium tin oxide (ITO) [14,15], gradually play an important role in nonvolatile integrated optical switches, modulators and computing. Different from devices built on classic electro-optic [16][17][18] or thermo-optic [19][20][21] effects, switches based on O-PCMs rely on the optical property change (e.g., refractive index change >1) caused by the transition between amorphous (a-) and crystalline (c-) states.…”

Wavelength‐Scale Photonic Space Switch Proof‐Of‐Concept Based on Photonic Hook Effect

“…[ 1,4–8 ] Among them, for example, the wavelength selective switches have received a lot of attention due to the capability to independently route optical signals to the channels depending on the wavelengths. [ 9–12 ] An optical switch of this type is a typical combination of a grating spectrometer and a spatial light modulator. [ 1 ] In this paper, we propose a new concept of a wavelength selective all‐optical switch based on a recently discovered curved spatially localized light beams referred to as a photonic hook, which is produced by asymmetric dielectric particles with the wavelength‐scale dimensions illuminated by a light wave.…”