Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings
Abstract The continuous push for high-performance photonic switches is one of the most crucial premises for the sustainable scaling of programmable and reconfigurable photonic circuits for a wide spectrum of applications. Conventional optical switches rely on the perturbative mechanisms of mode coup...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55528-9 |
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| author | Yinpeng Hu Yi Sun Ye Lu Huan Li Liu Liu Yaocheng Shi Daoxin Dai |
| author_facet | Yinpeng Hu Yi Sun Ye Lu Huan Li Liu Liu Yaocheng Shi Daoxin Dai |
| author_sort | Yinpeng Hu |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract The continuous push for high-performance photonic switches is one of the most crucial premises for the sustainable scaling of programmable and reconfigurable photonic circuits for a wide spectrum of applications. Conventional optical switches rely on the perturbative mechanisms of mode coupling or mode interference, resulting in inherent bottlenecks in their switching performance concerning size, power consumption and bandwidth. Here we propose and realize a silicon photonic 2×2 elementary switch based on a split waveguide crossing (SWX) consisting of two halves. The propagation direction of the incident light is manipulated to implement the OFF/ON states by splitting/combining the two halves of the SWX, showing excellent performance with low excess loss and low crosstalk over an ultrawide bandwidth. Both elementary switch and a 64×64 switch array based on Benes topology are fabricated and characterized, demonstrating great potential for practical scenarios such as photonic interconnect/routing, Lidar and spectroscopy, photonic computing, as well as microwave photonics. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-272e78c27f3340d0ab28220c8db35fbb |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-272e78c27f3340d0ab28220c8db35fbb2025-01-05T12:41:10ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-01-0116111010.1038/s41467-024-55528-9Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossingsYinpeng Hu0Yi Sun1Ye Lu2Huan Li3Liu Liu4Yaocheng Shi5Daoxin Dai6State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityState Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang UniversityAbstract The continuous push for high-performance photonic switches is one of the most crucial premises for the sustainable scaling of programmable and reconfigurable photonic circuits for a wide spectrum of applications. Conventional optical switches rely on the perturbative mechanisms of mode coupling or mode interference, resulting in inherent bottlenecks in their switching performance concerning size, power consumption and bandwidth. Here we propose and realize a silicon photonic 2×2 elementary switch based on a split waveguide crossing (SWX) consisting of two halves. The propagation direction of the incident light is manipulated to implement the OFF/ON states by splitting/combining the two halves of the SWX, showing excellent performance with low excess loss and low crosstalk over an ultrawide bandwidth. Both elementary switch and a 64×64 switch array based on Benes topology are fabricated and characterized, demonstrating great potential for practical scenarios such as photonic interconnect/routing, Lidar and spectroscopy, photonic computing, as well as microwave photonics.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55528-9 |
| spellingShingle | Yinpeng Hu Yi Sun Ye Lu Huan Li Liu Liu Yaocheng Shi Daoxin Dai Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings Nature Communications |
| title | Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| title_full | Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| title_fullStr | Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| title_full_unstemmed | Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| title_short | Silicon photonic MEMS switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| title_sort | silicon photonic mems switches based on split waveguide crossings |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-55528-9 |
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