Photonic crystal nanosecond wavelength switches

Robert O. Miller; David V. Tsu; Jeffrey A. Reed; David A. Strand

doi:10.1117/12.646537

3 March 2006 Photonic crystal nanosecond wavelength switches

Robert O. Miller, David V. Tsu, Jeffrey A. Reed, David A. Strand

Proceedings Volume 6124, Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits VIII; 61240B (2006) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.646537
Event: Integrated Optoelectronic Devices 2006, 2006, San Jose, California, United States

Abstract

We present our design and fabrication methodology of planar photonic crystal wavelength switches and the optical micro-bench surrounding them. The core device is a channel add-drop multiplexer (CADM) whose pass/transfer element can be turned off and on in tens of nanoseconds. The photonic crystal consists of a regular triangular array of SiO₂ -filled holes in an amorphous Ge₃Si film. The film is sandwiched between two SiO₂ cladding layers. The pass and transfer buses consist of linear extended defects in the crystal, with the pass bus and each drop bus separated by a cavity resonator defect tuned to each wavelength. There is a small region where an ECD-designed chalcogenide alloy is incorporated into each resonator. Switching is accomplished by changing the structure of the chalcogenide between amorphous and crystalline, using a short wavelength diode laser. The optical bench consists of photonic wire waveguides formed in the Ge₃Si film and deep trenches in an underlying thick SOI film to accommodate bonded access fibers, both features being photolithographically co-aligned to the photonic crystal array. This, along with our impedance-matching interface designs, assures that there is low input-output power loss. The local reconfigurability in effect elevates the CADM to an all-optical router. Sub-100 nanosecond latency enables packet-level discernment. The large difference in optical constants of the two chalcogenide phases provides high on-off contrast (low crosstalk). The stability of the two phases gives complete latching nonvolatility. Our current progress in building and testing prototypes of our switches is also presented.

Citation Download Citation

Robert O. Miller, David V. Tsu, Jeffrey A. Reed, and David A. Strand "Photonic crystal nanosecond wavelength switches", Proc. SPIE 6124, Optoelectronic Integrated Circuits VIII, 61240B (3 March 2006); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.646537

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