High-performance and power-efficient 2${\times}$2 optical switch on Silicon-on-Insulator

TL;DR

This paper presents a compact, high-performance 2x2 optical switch on Silicon-on-Insulator with low loss, high contrast, and low power consumption, suitable for integrated photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a highly optimized, CMOS-compatible photonic crystal-based optical switch with record low insertion loss and power efficiency.

Findings

Insertion loss below 1dB

Power consumption under 3mW

Switching time of 1 microsecond

Abstract

A compact (15{\mu}m${\times}${\mu}m) and highly-optimized 2${\times}$2 optical switch is demonstrated on a CMOS-compatible photonic crystal technology. On-chip insertion loss are below 1dB, static and dynamic contrast are 40dB and >20dB respectively. Owing to efficient thermo-optic design, the power consumption is below 3 mW while the switching time is 1 {\mu}s.