title: Compact and low power operation optical switch using silicon-germanium/silicon hetero-structure waveguide.
abstract: We proposed a silicon-based optical switch with a carrier-plasma-induced phase shifter which employs a silicon-germanium (SiGe) / silicon (Si) hetero-structure in the waveguide core. A type-I hetero-interface formed by SiGe and Si is expected to confine carriers effectively in the SiGe waveguide core. The fabricated Mach-Zehnder optical switch shows a low switching power of only 1.53 mW with a compact phase shifter length of 250 μm. The switching time of the optical switch is less than 4.6 ns for the case of a square waveform driving condition, and 1 ns for the case of a pre-emphasis electric driving condition. These results show that our proposed SiGe/Si waveguide structure holds promise for active devices with compact size and low operation power.
authors.affiliation: Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., 10-1 Morinosato-Wakamiya, Atsugi, Kanagawa 243–0197, Japan. s.sekiguchi@jp.fujitsu.com
authors.forename: Shigeaki
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sekiguchi
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurahashi
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Zhu
authors.forename: Kenichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kawaguchi
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Morito