Fast optical switch and its applications in optical communication
A fast optical switch can be fabricated/constructed, when vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) ultra thin-film or a cluster of vanadium dioxide particles (less than 0.5 microns in diameter) embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires is activated by either an electrical pulse (a voltage pulse or a current pulse) or a light pulse just to induce rapid insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide ultra thin-film or vanadium dioxide particles embedded in an ultra thin-film of a polymeric material or in a mesh of metal nanowires. The applications of such a fast optical switch for an on-Demand optical add-drop subsystem, integrating with or without a wavelength converter are also described.
1. An optical switch comprising:
a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide,
wherein the first optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the second optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with the second optical waveguide,
wherein a section of the first optical waveguide is partially parallel to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide is positioned at less than 5 microns or at 5 microns, with respect to the said section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide and the said section of the second optical waveguide comprise:
(i) an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.1 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide of an area less than 0.2 microns 2 ,
wherein the ultra thin-film is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes, wherein the ultra thin-film is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide,
or
(ii) a polymeric thin-film, wherein the polymeric thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the polymeric thin-film is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes,
wherein the polymeric thin-film is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles,
or
(iii) a mesh of metal nanowires, wherein the mesh of metal nanowires comprises: vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the mesh of metal nanowires is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes,
wherein the mesh of metal nanowires is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles.
2. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising a directionally coupled optical waveguides configuration.
3. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength multiplexer or a wavelength demultiplexer.
4. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength tunable multiplexer or a wavelength tunable demultiplexer.
5. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength tunable photonic crystal multiplexer or a wavelength tunable photonic crystal demultiplexer.
6. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength converter.
7. The optical switch according to claim 6 , comprising: a wavelength converter, wherein the wavelength converter comprises: As 2 S 3 chalcogenide material or two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals As 2 S 3 chalcogenide material or graphene on two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals of silicon waveguide.
8. The optical switch according to claim 6 , further comprising: a wavelength converter, wherein the wavelength converter comprises: a semiconductor optical amplifier or a quantum dot based semiconductor optical amplifier.
9. An optical switch comprising:
a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide,
wherein the first optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the second optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with the second optical waveguide,
wherein a section of the first optical waveguide is partially parallel to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide is positioned at less than 5 microns or at 5 microns, with respect to the said section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide and the said section of the second optical waveguide comprise:
(i) an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.1 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide of an area less than 0.2 microns 2 ,
wherein the ultra thin-film is receiving a light pulse, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide,
or
(ii) a polymeric thin-film, wherein the polymeric thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the polymeric thin-film is receiving a light pulse, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles,
or
(iii) a mesh of metal nanowires further comprises: vanadium dioxide vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the mesh of metal nanowires is receiving a light pulse, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles.
10. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising: an optical waveguide to propagate a beam of a light pulse and a focusing lens for focusing the beam of the light pulse,
wherein an optical intensity of the beam of the light pulse is in a range of 0.1 mJ/cm 2 to 50 mJ/cm 2 ,
wherein a pulse width of the beam of the light pulse is in a range of in the range of 0.001 nanoseconds to 0.1 nanoseconds.
11. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising: an optical waveguide to propagate a beam of a light pulse and a metamaterial based lens for focusing the beam of the light pulse below diffraction resolution limit.
12. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising: a directionally coupled optical waveguide configuration.
13. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength multiplexer or a wavelength demultiplexer.
14. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength tunable multiplexer or a wavelength tunable demultiplexer.
15. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength tunable photonic crystal multiplexer or a wavelength tunable photonic crystal demultiplexer.
16. The optical switch according to claim 9 , further comprising coupling with a wavelength converter.
17. The optical switch according to claim 16 , comprising: a wavelength converter, wherein the wavelength converter comprises: As 2 S 3 chalcogenide material or two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals As 2 S 3 chalcogenide material or graphene on two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals of silicon waveguide.
18. The optical switch according to claim 16 , further comprising: a wavelength converter, wherein the wavelength converter comprises: a semiconductor optical amplifier or a quantum dot based semiconductor optical amplifier.
19. An optical network processor system comprising:
(a) an optical switch,
wherein the optical switch comprises: a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide,
wherein the first optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the second optical waveguide is less than 5 microns in width,
wherein the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with the second optical waveguide,
wherein a section of the first optical waveguide is partially parallel to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide is positioned at less than 5 microns or at 5 microns, with respect to the said section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the said section of the first optical waveguide and the said section of the second optical waveguide comprise:
(i) an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.1 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide of an area less than 0.2 microns 2 ,
wherein the ultra thin-film is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes,
wherein the ultra thin-film is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide,
or
(ii) a polymeric thin-film, wherein the polymeric thin-film further comprises: vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the polymeric thin-film is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes, wherein the polymeric thin-film is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles,
or
(iii) a mesh of metal nanowires, wherein the mesh of metal nanowires comprises: vanadium dioxide particles, wherein each vanadium dioxide particle has a diameter less than 0.5 microns,
wherein the mesh of metal nanowires is electrically coupled with two metal electrodes,
wherein the mesh of metal nanowires is receiving a voltage pulse or a current pulse via the two metal electrodes, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide particles; and
(b) an optical add-drop subsystem,
wherein the optical add-drop subsystem comprises:
a wavelength multiplexer and a wavelength demultiplexer,
wherein the optical switch is optically coupled with the optical add-drop subsystem.
20. The optical network processor system according to claim 19 , further comprising: a wavelength converter.