Single ultrafast diffusive conduction based optoelectronic switch for multi-channel operation

Abstract

For multi-channel optical switching, we report single ultrafast diffusive conduction based optoelectronic switches that accommodate >100 optical channels (with 2,000mm -2 channel density and <10% crosstalk), on 300µm×300µm devices with switching bandwidths of >50GHz.Ultrafast all-optical switching has been extensively investigated and different types of photonic switches have been successfully demonstrated [1][2][3][4][5][6]. Such optical switches hold great promise for a wide range of high-speed applications that extend from optical wavelength conversion [1] to optical regeneration [2]. Such applications typically require arrays of switches, where a large number of optical channels need to be brought together into a small volume and switched within such limited space [3]. However, it is technically challenging to incorporate a large number of switches into an array integrated on a chip scale and to meet the requirements of such demanding multi-channel applications. In this paper for the first time, for multi-channel applications, we introduce a single ultrafast diffusive conduction based optoelectronic switch that accommodates >100 optical channels with a channel density of 2,000 channels per 1 mm 2 of lateral device area and <10% crosstalk between channels, on a typical 300µm×300µm device with a switching bandwidth of >50 GHz and a possible aggregate transmission rate of 5 Tb/s in principle. Fig.1(a) shows a device schematic of such an ultrafast optoelectronic switch that relies on diffusive conduction and Fig