Artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices for high-performance thermo-optic switches

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Photonic switching is a promising alternative to electronic switches due to advantages like high power efficiency and bandwidth density.
• Existing photonic switches often require complex fabrication processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a high-performance 1x8 thermo-optic switch utilizing artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices.
• To demonstrate a thermo-optic phase shifter optimized through topology optimization for improved performance and simplified fabrication.

Main Methods:

• Design and simulation of a thermo-optic switch based on artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices.
• Application of topology optimization to the thermo-optic phase shifter design.
• Characterization of switch performance including insertion loss, crosstalk, power consumption, driving voltage, bandwidth, and footprint.

Main Results:

• The proposed thermo-optic switch achieves an average insertion loss of 1.96 dB and crosstalk below -20 dB over a 60 nm bandwidth.
• The topology-optimized thermo-optic phase shifter demonstrates low power consumption (2.52 mW/π), low loss (0.4 dB), and requires a sub-1V driving voltage for 2π tuning.
• The device operates over a wide bandwidth (60 nm) and has a compact footprint (245 μm × 15 μm).

Conclusions:

• The developed thermo-optic switch offers competitive performance metrics, including low loss, low crosstalk, and wideband operation.
• Topology optimization successfully eliminates the need for intricate fabrication processes like air-trenches or undercuts.
• This technology presents a viable and efficient solution for next-generation photonic switching applications.