Fast optical switch and its applications in optical communication
A fast optical switch can be fabricated/constructed, when a vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ) and a two-dimensional (2-D) material is activated by either an electrical pulse (a voltage pulse or a current pulse) or a light pulse just to induce an insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide. The applications of such a fast optical switch for an on-demand optical add-drop subsystem, integrating with (a) a light slowing/light stopping component (based on metamaterials and/or nanoplasmonic structures) and (b) 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 or the second optical waveguide comprises:
a light slowing component or a light stopping component,
wherein the light slowing component or the light stopping component comprises: metamaterials of negative refractive index or nanostructures,
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 a section of the first optical waveguide is substantially parallel within manufacturing tolerance to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the section of the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the section of the second optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film comprises: vanadium dioxide,
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.
2. The optical switch according to claim 1 , further comprising a directionally coupled optical waveguides configuration or a multimode interference (MMI) coupler configuration or a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) 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 the 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 a silicon waveguide.
8. The optical switch according to claim 6 , further comprising the 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 or the second optical waveguide comprises:
a light slowing component or a light stopping component,
wherein the light slowing component or the light stopping component comprises: metamaterials of negative refractive index or nanostructures,
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 a section of the first optical waveguide is substantially parallel within manufacturing tolerance to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the section of the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the section of the second optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film comprises: vanadium dioxide,
wherein the ultra thin-film is receiving a light pulse, just to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide.
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 waveguides configuration or a multimode interference (MMI) coupler configuration or a Mach-Zehnder (MZ) 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 the 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 a silicon waveguide.
18. The optical switch according to claim 16 , further comprising the 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 comprising:
a first optical waveguide and a second optical waveguide,
wherein the first optical waveguide or the second optical waveguide comprises: a light slowing component or a light stopping component,
wherein the light slowing component or the light stopping component comprises: metamaterials of negative refractive index or nanostructures,
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 a section of the first optical waveguide is substantially parallel within manufacturing tolerance to a section of the second optical waveguide,
wherein the section of the first optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the section of the second optical waveguide is optically coupled with an ultra thin-film of thickness less than 0.15 microns,
wherein the ultra thin-film comprises: vanadium dioxide,
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, lust to induce insulator-to-metal (IMT) phase transition in vanadium dioxide; 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.