Total Internal Reflection Optical Switch in SOI With Defect Engineered Barrier Region

Author

Thomson, David J. ; Reed, Graham T. ; Knights, Andy P. ; Yang, Pengyuan Y. ; Gardes, Frederic Y. ; Smith, Andy J. ; Litvinenko, Konstantin L.

Author_Institution

Adv. Technol. Inst., Univ. of Surrey, Guildford, UK

Volume

28

Issue

17

fYear

2010

Firstpage

2483

Lastpage

2491

Abstract

Total internal reflection optical switches offer a switching operation which can be wavelength insensitive, thermally stable and polarisation independent. The implementation of such a switch based upon carrier injection in silicon is difficult due to the long diffusion lengths of injected free carriers. In this paper experimental results are presented which show that a reflective type switching operation is obtainable if a barrier formed of defective silicon is used to reduce free carrier diffusion.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; optical switches; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; SOI; Si; carrier injection; defect engineered barrier region; free carrier diffusion; free carriers; reflective type switching; silicon-on-insulator; total internal reflection optical switch; wavelength insensitive; Carrier confinement; Measurement; Optical reflection; Optical switches; Photonics; Plasma temperature; Refractive index; Silicon; Switching circuits; Temperature sensors; Carrier confinement; defect engineering; optical switch; silicon photonics; total internal reflection;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2010.2053914

Filename

5497058