Optical waveguide switch

摘要

Techniques are described to form an optical waveguide switch that could reach a very high extinction ratio. In particular, this disclosure describes an asymmetric MZI, in which different waveguide capacitor structures are used in two arms of the MZI: a first arm with a waveguide capacitor to achieve the mainly phase modulation and a second arm with a waveguide capacitor to achieve mainly the magnitude modulation, respectively. Using the asymmetric MZI in accordance with this disclosure, one can design an algorithm to achieve almost unlimited extinction ration during the switching operation.

主权项

1. An optical waveguide switch, comprising,
a waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometer, wherein the Mach-Zehnder interferometer has a first arm, a second arm, two input ports, and two output ports; a phase section on the first arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the said phase section is a length of optical waveguide capacitor; a magnitude section on the second arm of the Mach-Zehnder interferometer, the said magnitude section is a length of optical waveguide capacitor that is different from the waveguide capacitor of the phase section; the mobility of the carriers in the waveguide capacitor's charge storage volume is lower in the waveguide capacitor of the magnitude section than that of the phase section.