Optical switch based on multimode interference coupler

Author

Wang, Fan ; Yang, Jianyi ; Chen, Limei ; Jiang, Xiaoqing ; Wang, Minghua

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Sci., Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou, China

Volume

18

Issue

2

fYear

2006

Firstpage

421

Lastpage

423

Abstract

An optical switch based on the multimode interference (MMI) coupler is demonstrated in this letter. The device is designed and fabricated in polymeric materials and the thermooptic (TO) effect of polymers, which has a negative TO coefficient, is employed to change the self-imaging effect of a side-heated MMI coupler and realize optical switching. The switching power is only 22 mW. The experimental results show that the crosstalk of the switch is about -20 dB at both the cross and bar states.

Keywords

integrated optics; optical couplers; optical crosstalk; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical polymers; optical switches; thermo-optical effects; 22 mW; MMI coupler; crosstalk; multimode interference coupler; optical switch; polymeric materials; self-imaging effect; thermooptic effect; Interference; Optical attenuators; Optical coupling; Optical crosstalk; Optical filters; Optical polymers; Optical refraction; Optical switches; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Integrated optics; multimode interference (MMI); optical switch; optical waveguide; polymer; thermooptic (TO) effect;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2005.863201

Filename

1566673