Abstract—We propose and demonstrate a Mach-Zehnder interferometer associated waveguide loop mirror for tunable reflectors in silicon substrate. Experiments show that the transmissivity and reflectivity can be tuned between 0.01 and 0.98 via thermo-optical effect. The tuning energy is ~ 9mW and 10%-90% tuning time of ~ 5.4μs. Such tunable reflector can be used for hybrid Si laser cavity with tunable mirror reflection.
Index Terms—Thermo-optical effect, optical switch, silicon photonics, integrated photonics
Junfeng Song, Xianshu Luo, Xiaoguang Tu, Lianxi Jia, Tsung-YangLiow, Mingbin Yu and Guo-Qiang Lo are with the Institute of microelectronics, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*star) ,Singapore 117685. Singapore (e-mail: songjf@ime.a-star.edu.sg).
Junfeng Song is also with the State Key Laboratory on Integrated Opto-electronics, College of electronic Science and Enegineering, Jilinuniversity, Changchun 130012, China (e-mail: songjf@jlu.edu.cn).
Cite: Junfeng Song, Xianshu Luo, Xiaoguang Tu, Lianxi Jia, Tsung-Yang Liow, Mingbin Yu, and Guo-Qiang Lo, "Silicon Nanowire-Based Thermo-Optical Tunable Reflector," International Journal of Information and Electronics Engineering, vol. 2, no. 6, pp. 853-855, 2012.