Fast and low-power thermo-optic switch based on organic–inorganic hybrid strip-loaded waveguides

Abstract

We design and fabricate a thermo-optic waveguide switch based on the configuration of a balanced Mach–Zehnder interferometer optimized for fast operation. The structure of the waveguides consists of two core layers with the lower layer formed with the high-index organic–inorganic hybrid material DR1/SiO2−TiO2. The hybrid material allows the mode field to be confined in an area for fast heat removal, and the formation of index tapers to expand the mode field at the two ends of the device to facilitate butt-coupling with single-mode fibers. Our typical fabricated device shows the same rise time and fall time of 80 μs and low switching power of 8.9 mW at the wavelength of 1550 nm.