Augmenting performance of a MEMS cantilever-based photonic crystal waveguide for switching applications

In this paper, a micro-electro-mechanical system-based cantilever is integrated as a line defect on a photonic crystal silicon slab for optical switching applications. The elliptical holes are etched in the photonic crystal waveguide that result in wide transmission bandwidth of 56 nm in comparison to etched circular holes in the structure with a footprint of only ${12.5}\,\,{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}} \times {8}\,\,{\unicode{x00B5}{\rm m}}$12.5µm×8µm. The device is optimized for variation in height, the lattice constant, and semi-major and semi-minor axes in the optical range of the S-C-L band. It is shown that the response rise time of the device is 21 µs with very high extinction ratio of 30.4 dB and low insertion loss of 0.32 dB.