All-optical switches on a silicon chip realized using photonic crystal nanocavities

Takasumi Tanabe; Masaya Notomi; Satoshi Mitsugi; Akihiko Shinya; Eiichi Kuramochi

doi:10.1063/1.2089185

All-optical switches on a silicon chip realized using photonic crystal nanocavities

Takasumi Tanabe, Masaya Notomi, Satoshi Mitsugi, Akihiko Shinya, Eiichi Kuramochi

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

348 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

We demonstrate all-optical switching in the telecommunication band, in silicon photonic crystals at high speed (∼50 ps), with extremely low switching energy (a few 100 fJ), and high switching contrast (∼10 dB). The devices consist of ultrasmall high-quality factor nanocavities connected to input and output waveguides. Switching is induced by a nonlinear refractive-index change caused by the plasma effect of carriers generated by two-photon absorption in silicon. The high-quality factor and small mode volume led to an extraordinarily large reduction in switching energy. The estimated internal switching energy in the nanocavity is as small as a few tens of fJ, indicating that further reduction on the operating energy is possible.

Original language	English
Article number	151112
Pages (from-to)	1-3
Number of pages	3
Journal	Applied Physics Letters
Volume	87
Issue number	15
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2089185
Publication status	Published - 2005 Oct 10
Externally published	Yes

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Physics and Astronomy (miscellaneous)

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All-optical switches on a silicon chip realized using photonic crystal nanocavities

Abstract

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