A Thermo-optic multimode interference switch structure based on vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel

• Main Authors: Ibrahim, Mohd. Haniff, Abdullah, Ahmad Sharmi, Mohd. Kassim, Norazan, Mohammad, A. B., Mohd. Supa'at, Abu Sahmah
• Format: Article
• Published: Elsevier 2012
• Subjects: TK Electrical engineering. Electronics Nuclear engineering
• Online Access: http://eprints.utm.my/id/eprint/32861/; https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S003040261200277X?via%3Dihub

A vinyltriethoxysilane (VTES) based hybrid organic–inorganic sol–gel is synthesized and characterized for its abilities in optoelectronic applications. The resulted hybrid material, which is known as VTT, is fabricated as a thin film structure under controlled environment. The film thickness for various coating speeds and refractive index are measured by the method of prism coupling. Based on the film characterization results, a 2 × 2 multimode interference photonic switch structure based on thermal controlling effect is proposed. A ridge waveguide of VTT in silica clad is used as a design structure. The switching characteristics due to changes in effective index are analyzed by the two-dimensional finite difference beam propagation method with transparent boundary condition. The proposed structure works well with low crosstalk level of -28 dB and low switching power relatively to the structural upper cladding thickness.