Silicon-organic hybrid thermo-optic switch based on a slot waveguide directional coupler

We propose and demonstrate a passively biased 2 x 2 thermo-optic switch with high power efficiency and fast response time. The device benefits from the highly concentrated optical field of a slot waveguide mode and the strong thermo-optic effect of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cladding. The NLC fills the nano-slot region and is aligned by the subwavelength grating inside. The measured power consumption and thermal time constant are 0.58 mW and 11.8 mu s, respectively, corresponding to a figure-of-merit of 6.8 mW mu s. The proposed silicon-organic hybrid device provides a new solution to design thermo-optic actuators having low power consumption and fast operation speed. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

We present a passively biased 2 x 2 thermo-optic switch with high power efficiency and fast response time. The switch utilizes the highly concentrated optical field of a slot waveguide mode and the strong thermo-optic effect of a nematic liquid crystal (NLC) cladding. The device demonstrates low power consumption and fast operation speed, providing a new solution for designing thermo-optic actuators.