Novel silicon waveguide switch based on total internal reflection

Abstract
Novel silicon asymmetric optical switches with transverse injection structure have been proposed and fabricated which are based on total internal reflection and free-carrier effect. The switches have a quite short operation length of about 200 μm. The device performance was measured at the wavelength of 1.3 μm. It shows that the crosstalk is less than −11.4 dB at an injection current of 85 mA. Response time is 100 ns. They are very suitable for silicon monolithic optoelectronic integration