Optical Switching Research Articles

Integrated Optical Switches based on Kerr Symmetry Breaking in Microresonators

Integrated Optical Switches based on Kerr Symmetry Breaking in Microresonators

All-optical switching in nonlinear topological waveguide arrays

Photonic topological states are prospective in integrated optical devices due to their robustness to perturbations and defects. When taking into account the nonlinear effects of the system, the functionality of topological photonics can be further enhanced. Here, we investigated the interplay between topological edge states and nonlinear effects based on the Su–Schrieffer–Heeger (SSH) model. Relying on the theory prediction that topological edge states would shift upward under the action of nonlinearity, two types of optical switching are designed and experimentally realized in femtosecond laser direct-write waveguide arrays. This work provides a new, to the best of our knowledge, approach to preparing all-optical switches and offers a new perspective on the application of nonlinearity in topological optical devices.

Scalable SOA-based Banyan optical space switch on InP membrane on silicon (IMOS)

Optical switches (OS) are vital for meeting modern data centers’ capacity and latency needs, overcoming the bandwidth and speed limitations that electronic switches encounter. To this end, this work proposes a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA)-based OS on the IMOS, a unique platform with a combination of high refractive index contrast for compactness and monolithic active-passive integration for active functionalities, thereby enabling the creation of compact SOA-based OSes. An 8 × 8 Banyan SOA-based OS is integrated on a 4 × 4 mm2 area on the standard 4 × 6 mm2 IMOS cell. This marks the first application of the IMOS technology platform for SOA-based OSes and sets the stage for compact and large-scale monolithic photonic integrated OS circuits. The basic 2 × 2 switch module delivers a high optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) and an extinction ratio (ER) above 45 dB. Employing NRZ-OOK routing on the 2 × 2 basic OS module, a 15 dB input power dynamic range (IPDR) is achieved within a 1 dB power penalty at 12.5 Gb/s. Data routing at higher data rates of 25 Gb/s and 40 Gb/s incurs power penalties of 0.8 and 1.4 dB, respectively. Furthermore, data routing for a 3-stage 8 × 8 switch operating at 25 Gb/s results in a power penalty of 1.2 dB. Compared to the 1-stage 2 × 2 switch, only a 0.4 dB additional penalty is observed despite incorporating 2 additional SOAs in the cascade. This indicates that the switch can scale to higher radix to accommodate multi-stage switches with numerous ports, large bandwidth, and fast speed, which is essential in modern large-scale data centers.

Ultra-wideband terahertz absorber with switchable multiple modes based on graphene and vanadium dioxide metamaterials

This article proposes a dynamic switchable broadband absorber based on graphene and vanadium dioxide (VO2). The temperature could adjust the conductivity of VO2, and external voltage could alter the conductivity of graphene. Therefore, they can be used for broadband absorption that can be switched between low and high frequencies and for achieving coupled ultra-wideband absorption. When the Fermi level of graphene is 0.9eV and VO2 is in a non-metallic state, the absorber can achieve absorption of over 90% in the range of 2.55THz-4.86THz. When the Fermi level of graphene is 0.1eV and VO2 is in a metallic state, the absorber can achieve absorption of over 90% in the range of 4.30THz-9.40THz. When the Fermi level of graphene is 0.6eV and VO2 is in a metallic state, the absorber can achieve absorption of over 90% in the range of 2.32THz-9.80THz. The absorber only partially depends on the incident angle of the incident light, simulation results show that when the incident angle is below 50 degrees, more than 90% of the absorption bandwidth changes less. The absorber has no relation to the polarization angle of the incident light, and can keep its original property at any polarization angle. This structure has potential applications in electromagnetic wave stealth devices, optical switches and filters.

Multifunctional integrated droplet lens based on microfluidics

A multifunctional integrated droplet lens based on microfluidics is proposed. The lens consists of a microfluidic chip, four droplets with different properties, and transparent silicone oil. Visible-light, infrared, narrow wavelength band, and light-switching droplets can be used for imaging in the VIS-NIR (visible to near-infrared), narrow wavelength band, and blocking light, respectively. The optical focal power of the proposed lens is -134.6 D ∼ -91.62 D with visible-light droplet and -21.1 D ∼ -12.9 D with infrared droplet. When the droplet lens is used as an optical switch, the maximum optical attenuation is 251:1. It is measured that the transmitted power can be adjusted from 0.015 mW to 0.096 mW when the initial incident power is 0.776 mW. The proposed lens integrates the functions of zoom and optical attenuation. It offers important advantages in providing lightweight, high integration and shows a wide range of potential applications in microscopy systems, microfluidic systems, and variable optical attenuators.

Tunable dual-band unidirectional reflectionlessness in a one-dimensional waveguide-cavity optomechanical system

Tunable dual-band unidirectional reflectionless phenomena in a one-dimensional waveguide coupled with a cavity optomechanical system driven by external driving fields were investigated. The results indicated that dual-band unidirectional reflectionlessnesses can be obtained by appropriately adjusting the strengths of the external driving fields, phase shift between the two optical cavities, coupling strengths of the optical cavities to the waveguide and decay rates of the two cavities and mechanical resonators. Moreover their peaks can be tuned by changing both the effective optomechanical coupling strengths and phase shift, which can achieve unidirectional reflectionlessness by adjusting the external driving fields when the phase shift is difficult to adjust precisely. This work provides a well theoretical reference for the research and development of quantum optical devices such as optical diodes, switches, and isolators.

Two‐mode multiplexed Fourier‐based labels

AbstractA two‐mode optical packet switching architecture using an optical multiport mode‐division multiplexing label generator and processor is proposed. By combining optical labels on two modes, the number of labels is increased exponentially. Beat noise significantly affects the label error rate, when multimode crosstalk is maximum. This impairment can be mitigated by time shifting the optical labels of the two modes by half of the label duration.

Novel terahertz optical switch based on PIT phenomenon and Lorentz theory

Novel terahertz optical switch based on PIT phenomenon and Lorentz theory

Toward tailored light absorption manipulation by Kerr nonlinear nanoslits within a grating Fabry-Perot cavity coupled with reconfigurable GST225 material

In this paper, we investigate the absorption tunability of a silver plasmonic grating incorporating Kerr-type nonlinear graphene-oxide (GO) nanoslits and Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST225) phase-change material at telecom wavelengths. The linear absorption spectra reveal that the amorphous GST225 grating exhibits two distinct absorption peaks, while half-crystallization leads to a single pronounced peak, and full crystallization results in a redshifted peak with a slightly decreased value. These findings confirm that the crystalline degree of GST225 significantly modulates the absorption characteristics. Upon exposure to a nanosecond Gaussian pulse laser irradiation with appropriate fluences, the electric field confinement within the nanoslits intensifies, particularly at the center of the pulse, leading to a pronounced absorption adjustment due to Kerr nonlinearity. Temporal examination at the L-band wavelength of 1591.5 nm reveals a U-shaped absorption response for both amorphous and crystalline GST225, with a pronounced dip at the pulse’s peak. In the half-crystallized state, the weak linear absorption can be substantially enhanced at both the leading and trailing edges of the pulse, with a dip at the center, illustrating the Kerr nonlinearity within the GO nanoslits. The dynamic behavior of absorption under different laser fluences underscores the potential of this system for high-contrast optical switching. Our results offer insights into the development of reconfigurable optical switches utilizing nonlinear Kerr effects, paving the way for advancements in tunable optical communication technologies.

Progress and Prospect of Liquid Crystal Droplets

Liquid crystal (LC) droplets are highly attractive for applications in privacy windows, optical switches, optical vortices, optical microresonators, microlenses, and biosensors due to their ease of fabrication and easy alignment at surfaces. This review presents the latest advancements in LC droplets, which have nematic, chiral nematic, and twist–bend nematic and ferroelectric nematic phases, or blue phases. Finally, it discusses the challenges and opportunities for applications based on LC droplets. The main challenges encompass the precise control of internal structures and defects to meet diverse application requirements, enhancing stability and durability across various environments, reducing large-scale production costs to improve commercial feasibility, increasing response speeds to external stimuli to adapt to rapidly changing scenarios, and developing tunable LC droplets to achieve broader functionalities.

Thermally tunable add-drop filter based on valley photonic crystals for optical communications

Abstract Valley photonic crystals (VPCs) provide an intriguing approach to suppress backscattering losses and enable robust transport of light against sharp bends, which could be utilized to realize low-loss and small-footprint devices for on-chip optical communications. However, there are few studies on how to achieve power-efficient tunable devices based on VPCs, which are essential for implementing basic functions such as optical switching and routing. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a thermally tunable add-drop filter (ADF) based on VPCs operating at telecommunication wavelengths. By leveraging the topological protection of the edge state and the distinct property of negligible scattering at sharp bends, a small footprint of 17.4 × 28.2 μm2 and a low insertion loss of 2.7 dB can be achieved for the proposed device. A diamond-shaped microloop resonator is designed to confine the light and enhance its interaction with the thermal field generated by the microheater, leading to a relatively low power of 23.97 mW needed for switching the output signal from one port to the other. Based on the thermally tunable ADF under the protection of band topology, robust data transmission is implemented with an ultrahigh data rate of 132 Gb/s. Our work shows great potential for developing high-performance topological photonic devices with the thermally tunable silicon-based VPCs, which offers unprecedented opportunities for realizing topologically protected and reconfigurable high-speed datalinks on a chip.

High Q transparency, strong third harmonic generation, and giant nonlinear chirality driven by toroidal dipole-quasi-BIC

Electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), nonlinearity, and optical chirality hold significant applications in many areas such as optical switches, slow-light devices, chiral harmonic conversion, and optical storage. In this work, we theoretically propose an asymmetric all-dielectric metasurface supporting toroidal dipole-quasi-bound states in the continuum (TD-q-BICs). High quality (Q) EIT, strong third harmonic generation (THG), and giant nonlinear chirality are achieved via the extremely enhanced electric field energy localized in the Si plate by the TD-q-BIC. A huge transition from high Q EIT with transmission of ∼0.99 to strong chirality with circular dichroism (CD) of ∼0.9 is realized by tuning the angle and polarization state of incident light. Strong THG with efficiency of 4.5 × 10−3 under linear polarization light is due to the highly localized electric field supported by the TD-q-BIC and perfect nonlinear CD chirality with theoretically value of ∼1 originates from the large discrepancy in electric field distributions under different circularly polarized light. Our work provides an innovative paradigm to construct TD-q-BICs-governed EIT analogs, THG, and nonlinear chirality for the development of multifunction nanophotonic meta-devices.

Tunable Fano resonances at 2 μm waveband based on a single microring resonator

Abstract Development of silicon photonic devices for the 2 μm waveband is urgent since the 2 μm waveband has been considered as a potential communication window for next-generation optical communications. Asymmetric Fano resonances are very promising in the development of devices such as optical switches, sensors, and modulators for the 2 μm waveband. In this paper, a Fano resonance at the 2 μm waveband is theoretically realized by using a silicon-based microring resonator and the thermo-optic effect is employed to tune it. Utilizing this single microring resonator structure instead of the present coupled microring resonator structures, we achieve the Fano resonance with an extinction ratio of 30.5 dB and a slope ratio of 69.3 dB nm−1 at the 2 μm waveband. The metal heater and graphene heater are designed and optimized to achieve the Fano tuning. The thermal-optical tuning efficiencies are 0.46 nm mW−1, 0.61 nm mW−1 and 1 nm mW−1 for the metal heater, the metal heater with air adiabatic slots, and the graphene heater, respectively. This work provides an effective scheme for the formation and tuning of the Fano resonance at the 2 μm waveband, which is conducive to the development of devices and optical communication systems at the 2 μm waveband.

Tunable photo-response in the visible to NIR spectrum range of Germanium-based junctionless nanowire transistor.

In this paper, the phototransistor behavior is investigated in the germanium-on-insulator (GeOI)-based junctionless nanowire (JL-NW) transistor under various light conditions. High responsivity and photosensitivity are attributed in the fully depleted regime within the visible and near-infrared bands. The impact of light is also investigated in detail on the electronic and transfer characteristics such as energy bandgap, carrier distribution, electrostatic potential, electric field, and generation and recombination rates. Further, the channel doping and thickness are tuned to optimize the optical responsivity. The significant tunability of responsivity is observed with increasing channel thickness. The device exhibits fast optical switching performance, which is further enhanced at higher input light power. Overall, at the nanoscale dimension, our proposed phototransistor demonstrates better detectivity with a significantly smaller illumination area. Thus, the GeOI-based JL-NW phototransistors can be used for imaging (visible wavelength range) and bioimaging (near-infrared wavelength range) applications in advanced technology nodes.

Theoretical and Numerical Modeling of Optical Switching of Epitaxial Nanostructures Based on Iron-Garnet Films

The paper presents a theoretical analysis of magnetization switching in a gadolinium ferrite garnet film due to the demagnetizing effect of a femtosecond laser pulse. Using the Lagrange formalism for a two-sublattice ferrimagnet, the effective Lagrangian, thermodynamic potential, and Rayleigh dissipative function are obtained. The phase diagram of the ferrite film is analyzed, and the main states of the system are identified. Magnetization switching diagrams and trajectories of the order parameter dynamics of the magnet are constructed. The ranges of magnetic fields, temperatures, and demagnetization values for the most efficient magnetization switching are analyzed.

Dual-channel bistability modulation in a bilayer graphene-based optomechanical system.

We propose a flexible scheme for studying linear absorption response and optical bistability (OB) in a bilayer graphene-based optomechanical system. The results show that as the coupling between the G-mode phonon and excitons is turned on, the linear absorption spectrum will evolve from a single-peaked structure to a two-peaked one, and the spacing between two splitting peaks is equal to twice as large as the phonon-exciton coupling strength. Especially, we plot bistability phase diagrams within the system's parameter subspaces, demonstrating that the bistable switch can be controlled via no, single, or dual-channel by changing the intensity of the pump light in a weak phonon-exciton coupling regime. This holds promise for developing precision-measuring nanodevices and multi-channel optical bistable switches.

Reversible multimode modulations in photochromic transparent Eu3+doped K0.5Na0.5NbO3 based ceramics

Rare-earth doped transparent photochromic materials have attracted extensive attention in applications of optical information storage and optical switching, in which the high transparency and large fluorescence modulation ratio are required. In this work, 0.94 (K0.5Na0.5)NbO3-0.06 (Sr0.5Ba0.5) (Zn1/3Bi2/3)O3: x wt% Eu2O3 ceramics (KNN-SBZB: xEu) with x=0.1, 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 were prepared by traditional high temperature solid state sintering reaction method. High transmittance (T) was achieved due to the small grain size (less than 110 nm) and the highly symmetrical phase structure. High optical transmittance of 69.27 % at 780 nm and 78.24 % at 1100 nm were obtained in the KNN-SBZB: 0.3Eu ceramic, while large luminescence intensity modulation ratio (∆RL) ∼94.9 %, transmittance (∆RT) ∼5.76 % and diffuse reflectivity (∆ABS) ∼12.59 % were achieved in KNN-SBZB: 0.2Eu ceramic (T ∼62.92 % at 780 nm). Additionally, both the transmittance modulation and luminescence intensity modulation of KNN-SBZB: xEu ceramics show good stability after 10 cycles.

Optical and sign-flipping nonlinear optical properties of NiO/PMMA/PANI nanocomposite films

In this study, we introduce an efficient nanocomposite system to enhance optical properties of Nickel oxide (NiO) integrated with two polymers matrix. NiO nanoparticles is prepared using chemical co-precipitation method and its nanocomposite films (NCFs) were prepared with poly methyl methacrylate (PMMA) and polyaniline (PANI) using drop-casting method on glass substrate and was optimized by changing the concentration of NiO. The prepared NCFs were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), ultraviolet (UV)-visible absorption spectroscopy, photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron (XPS) spectroscopy. The open-aperture z-scan method is employed for nonlinear optical investigations, utilizing a nanosecond pulsed laser with a wavelength of 532 nm for excitation. The findings indicate that the NCFs exhibit sign-flipping nonlinear behavior, indicating a transition from saturable absorption to reverse saturable absorption. This suggests that our NCFs exhibit optical limiting properties and potential for applications in photonic devices, such as optical switches and laser protection systems.

Silicon photonics foundry fabricated, slow-light enhanced, low power thermal phase shifter

In this research, we developed a low-power silicon photonics foundry-fabricated slow-light thermal phase shifter (SLTPS) where the slow-light (SL) effect is achieved using an integrated Bragg grating (BG) waveguide. Heating the grating induces a red shift in the transmission spectrum, leading to an increased group index ng during operation, which facilitates a further reduction in the voltage needed for a π phase shift, i.e., Vπ. Additionally, we investigated a compact Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) that incorporates the SLTPS in both arms with a phase shifter length of 50 μm. A detailed theoretical analysis was conducted to address the non-idealities of the SL-MZI due to uneven optical power splitting and unbalanced loss in the two MZI arms. Vπ and power consumption for a π phase shift (Pπ) of the SL-MZI were quantified for operation in the slow-light regime, demonstrating a Vπ of 1.1 V and a Pπ of 3.63 mW at an operational wavelength near the photonic band edge. The figure of merit Pπ×τ is commonly used to assess the performance of thermal optical switches. The SL-MZI in this work has achieved a low Pπ×τ of 5.1 mW μs with an insertion loss of 4.4 dB, indicating a trade-off with the Vπ reduction.

Optical circuit switched three-stage twisted-folded Clos-network design model guaranteeing admissible blocking probability

Some data center networks have already started to use optical circuit switching (OCS) with potential performance benefits, including high capacity, low latency, and energy efficiency. This paper addresses a switching network design to maximize the network radix, i.e., the number of terminals connected to the network under the condition that a specified number of identical switches with the size N×N and the maximum admissible blocking probability are given. Previous work presented a two-stage twisted and folded Clos network (TF-Clos) with a blocking probability guarantee for OCS, which has a larger network radix than TF-Clos with a strict-sense non-blocking condition. Expanding the number of stages allows for enhancing the network radix. This paper proposes a model designing an OCS three-stage TF-Clos structure with a blocking probability guarantee to increase the network radix compared to the two-stage TF-Clos. We formulate the problem of obtaining the network configuration that maximizes the network radix as an optimization problem. We conduct an algorithm based on an exhaustive search to obtain a feasible solution satisfying the constraints of the optimization problem. This algorithm identifies the structure with the largest network radix in non-increasing order to avoid unnecessary searches. Numerical results show that the proposed model achieves a larger network radix than the two-stage model.