Abstract
In this paper we propose and analyze a new type of 1 × 2 thermo-optic polymer waveguide switches which have several advantages compared to conventional approaches based on the Mach- Zehnder interferometer structure1 or the Y- branch structure.2 The basic structure of the device is a S-shape Multi-Mode-Interference (MM I) waveguide with less than half of the waveguide being covered by the electric heater [Figure 1(a)). The device functions in the cross-state with no heating and in the through-state with heating on. A S-shape MMI waveguide structure has been used to reduce the required device length. As is known, in a bent waveguide structure the spatial distribution of different modes will not remain symmetric or anti-symmetric, but will be shifted toward the outer side of the bent waveguide.3 By placing the input waveguide in the outer side of the bent waveguide, one can excite the multimode waveguide with more power concentrated in fewer modes. The effective refractive index difference between the adjacent lower order modes also becomes larger, which reduces the self-imaging distance in a MMI structure.4 In this way we can achieve not only smaller device length but also much wider operation bandwidth.3
© 2002 Optical Society of America
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