title: Electro-optical switching at 1550 nm using a two-state GeSe phase-change layer.
abstract: New designs for electro-optical free-space and waveguided 2 x 2 switches are presented and analyzed at the 1.55 μm telecoms wavelength. The proposed devices employ a ~10 nm film of GeSe that is electrically actuated to transition the layer forth-and-back from the amorphous to the crystal phase, yielding a switch with two self-sustaining states. This phase change material was selected for its very low absorption loss at the operation wavelength, along with its electro-refraction Δn ~0.6. All switches are cascadeable into N x M devices. The free-space prism-shaped structures use III-V prism material to match the GeSe crystal index. The Si/GeSe/Si "active waveguides" are quite suitable for directional-coupler switches as well as Mach-Zehnder devices-all of which have an active length 16x less than that in the free-carrier art.
authors.forename: Richard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Soref
authors.forename: Joshua
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hendrickson
authors.forename: Haibo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liang
authors.forename: Arka
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Majumdar
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Mu
authors.forename: Xun
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Wei-Ping
authors.initials: WP
authors.lastname: Huang