Electrooptic polymeric digital optical switches (DOSs) with adiabatic couplers

Abstract

Electrooptic polymeric digital optical switches with an adiabatic coupler is proposed and demonstrated. The tip portion of the Y-branch is replaced by a full 1 /spl times/ 2 adiabatic coupler. By having this design, the switching voltage can be lowered and the devices are easier to fabricate. The fabricated switches show a characteristic step-like response to the driving voltage. The switching voltage is 5.9 /spl sim/ 6.4 V for dual-arm driving and the extinction ratio is higher than 20 dB. With the improvement of the bias voltage, this nonresonant optical switch design can be driven in a push-pull configuration without bias.