title: Performance influence of carrier absorption to the Mach-Zehnder-interference based silicon optical switches.
abstract: The free carrier absorption effect in silicon modulation is a detrimental behavior that can influence the crosstalk of interference-based optical switches. Based on the experimental analysis of a 2x2 p-i-n silicon switch, we give a conservative estimate of the crosstalk ability of Mach-Zehnder optical switches. Experimental result shows that, while using a 1475 microm-long phase shifter, the loss penalty almost reaches 1.45 dB/pi, which deteriorates the most ideal crosstalk to just 30 dB. The possible solutions to overcome this limitation are also discussed at the cost of the other device performance.
authors.affiliation: Department of Information Science and Electronics Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China. hfzhou1984@gmail.com
authors.forename: Haifeng
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Wanjun
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Jianyi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Minghua
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xiaoqing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jiang
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007368:Interferometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D013685:Telecommunications / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon