Performance of field-induced directional coupler switches

Author

Chinni, V.R. ; Huang, T.C. ; Wai, P.K.A. ; Menyuk, C.R. ; Simonis, G.J.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng., Maryland Univ., Baltimore, MD, USA

Volume

31

Issue

11

fYear

1995

fDate

11/1/1995 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

2068

Lastpage

2074

Abstract

Switching in a GaAs field-induced, three-waveguide straight directional coupler is studied theoretically. This device can be tuned externally by changing the voltage across the waveguides. Because of this tunability, the device has some very attractive features as a switching element. The performance change due to variations in the device parameters such as length, waveguide separation, waveguide width, and wavelength of operation is numerically computed. The effect of material absorption, input and output coupling, and asymmetric excitation are included in the performance evaluation. For a device length of 1400 μm, a crosstalk of -34 dB and a power transfer efficiency of -2 dB is predicted, while for the same device size a two-guide directional coupler is predicted a crosstalk of -13.4 dB. The device has a 400 nm voltage tunable bandwidth with a maximum crosstalk penalty of 3 dB

Keywords

III-V semiconductors; electro-optical switches; field effect transistors; gallium arsenide; integrated optics; optical crosstalk; optical directional couplers; tuning; GaAs; GaAs field-induced three-waveguide straight directional coupler; asymmetric excitation; crosstalk; device length; device parameters; field-induced directional coupler switches; input coupling; material absorption; maximum crosstalk penalty; output coupling; performance evaluation; power transfer efficiency; switching element; tunability; tuned; two-guide directional coupler; voltage; voltage tunable bandwidth; waveguide separation; waveguide width; Acoustic waveguides; Directional couplers; Electrodes; Optical crosstalk; Optical refraction; Optical waveguides; Refractive index; Switches; Voltage; Waveguide transitions;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Quantum Electronics, IEEE Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0018-9197

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/3.469289

Filename

469289