Ultrahigh extinction ratio and a low power silicon thermo-optic switch

• DOI: 10.1364/ol.520209
• Publication Date: 2024-04-12T13:00:12Z
• Authors: Jin Wang; Shangqing Shi; Hongsheng Niu; Suzhe Gao; Bo Yang; Shihao Zhang; Wei Cheng; Yifei Chen; Chen Guo; Wanghua Zhu; Guohua Hu; Yiping Cui; Binfeng Yun
• Keywords: Extinction ratio; Figure of Merit; Hybrid silicon laser

The silicon thermo-optic switch (TOS) is one of the most fundamental and crucial blocks in large-scale photonic integrated circuits (PICs). An energy-efficient TOS with ultrahigh extinction ratio can effectively mitigate cross talk reduce power consumption optical systems. In this Letter, we demonstrate a based on cascading Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) spiral phase shifters. experimental results show that an 58.8 dB obtained, switching as low 2.32 mW/π without air trench. rise time fall are about 10.8 11.2 µs, respectively. Particularly, figure merit (FOM) has been improved compared previously reported TOS. proposed may find potential applications arrays, on-chip delay lines, etc.