Integrated photonic MEMS switch for visible light

Visible-light integrated photonics serve applications inaccessible to conventional (C- and O-band) silicon photonics, including trapped-ion and neutral atom quantum experiments, biophotonics, and displays. Despite demonstrations of increasingly advanced functionalities and levels of integration, the development of low-power, monolithically integrated, visible-light switches and phase shifters remains an outstanding challenge. Here, we demonstrate an integrated photonic, electrostatic MEMS-actuated Mach-Zehnder interferometer optical switch for the visible spectrum. The device operated with an extinction ratio of 7.2 dB and optical loss of 2.5 dB at a wavelength of 540 nm. The measured 10-90% rise (fall) times were 5 (28) µs, and a low static power dissipation of about 0.5 nW was achieved. The dynamic power dissipation at a 30 kHz switching frequency was estimated to be < 70 µW.