Design of ultra fast 2x2 electro-optic polymer waveguide switch for protection in intelligent optical networks

S Ponmalar* and S Sundaravadivelu

Thiagarajar College of Engineering, Madurai-625 015, India S S N College of Engineering, Chennai-603 110, India Received 19 July 2010; revised 25 November 2010; accepted This paper presents design of an ultra high speed 2x2 polymer electro-optic waveguide switch. Proposed switch has very short switching time (0.47 ps) and trapezoidal grating has following optimized parameters: coupling length, 81 m; and switching voltage at operating wavelength of 1550 nm, 8.5 V. Proposed switch with smaller size, lower requirement of drive voltage and shorter switching time than existing switches is an important element in protection application in intelligent optical network. Keywords: Coupled mode theory, Electro-optic effect, Intelligent optical network, Optical switch, Waveguide grating structures

Introduction Introduction of intelligence in optical networks leads to Intelligent Optical Networks (ION) paradigm, which can provide faster provisioning of light paths, protection and restoration, automatic discovery of network elements and automatic reconfiguration of network1. When combined with modern service management technologies, these networks open exciting opportunities for delivering new customized optical services directly to end-users, allowing carriers to fully exploit economics of optical transport2. ION enabled by high capacity Optical Cross Connects (OXCs), optical add-drop multiplexers with software intelligence, grants new methods for managing high capacity core optical networks. Important innovations that OXCs bring to optical networking include switching capacities matching bandwidth needs of dense wavelength-division multiplexing (DWDM) technologies, automatic topology and resource discovery supporting large random mesh topologies. Since these elements are very much essential to the network, there is a strong need for high speed optical switching devices, which will be key component of ION. Several types of optical switching devices available are electro optic switch3, optomechanical4,5, thermo optic6,7, bragg grating switch8, PLZT electro optic switch9 and photonic crystal switch10,11. Of these switches, most useful is optical waveguide grating coupler based switch, which is highly stable and reliable. This study presents designing of a 22 polymer electro optic waveguide (PEOW) switch having a barstate switching at zero voltage with different geometry for protection application. Experimental Section
Design of Electro-Optic Switch

Waveguide grating based 2x2 optical switch (Fig. 1) consists of a film (thickness f) embedded over a substrate (thickness t) and L is length of device, which is decided upon switching characteristics of switch. Rectangular, triangular or trapezoidal grating of width w, height h and gap g between two gratings of same material as that of the film was projected over film layer along the direction of propagation. Electrodes (thickness d) are embedded over grating and below the substrate. When power is incident on one waveguide, it excites a linear combination of symmetric and asymmetric modes12. As fields propagate through the system, propagation constants of two modes develop a phase difference. When accumulated phase difference is , superposition of these modes will result in a cancellation in the first waveguide and an addition in the second waveguide. Further propagation over an equal length will result in a phase difference 2, leading to power transfer back to first waveguide. Thus, power exchanges periodically between these two waveguides. High speed light switching can be attained in structures made of electro-optic (EO) materials. When an electric field is applied to EO materials, a change in refractive index (RI) alters speed of an optical signal travelling through it. Applied electrical field produces this response by disturbing electronic polarization of non-centro symmetrically ordered chromophores dispersed in organic matrix material. This effect is called pockels effect. Relationship of index change n to applied field is given as13
*Author for correspondence E-mail: spmece@tce.edu

n =

n3 V r33 2 d

(1)

where n is change of materials optical RI, r33 is EO coefficient and d is electrode thickness. When EO activity of a material is high, less electric field strength is required to change RI. EO polymers13,14 have advantages of high data rate operation, low drive voltage, and broad bandwidth. It has very fast EO response time, very high EO coefficient (r33 up to 300 pm/V), relatively low dielectric constant and closely matched RIs (1.4-1.7) at optical and RF wavelengths. Therefore, EO polymer material was chosen as a base material in designing of EO switch. Efficient switching is possible by placing planar electrodes on directional couplers consisting of two identical single-mode waveguides close to each other (Fig. 1), where EO material is used as substrate (RI, 1.711) and as film (RI, 1.723). Propagation constant difference between two waveguides is varied by EO effect with an applied voltage V, while coupling coefficient is insensitive to V under weak coupling condition. Coupling length L for complete power transfer from one waveguide to other is also defined as / 2 when =0. Coupler length l must be adjusted to be an odd multiple of L so that incident light on waveguide 1 is totally transferred to waveguide 2 at the output when voltage V is applied to electrode, which is crossover state of the switch. When no voltage is applied,

/ = 2 3 power transfer of waveguide 1 to 1 is then obtained which is through state of the switch.
Methodology

Waveguide gratings structures are analyzed using coupled mode theory15,16. In presence of periodic perturbation, predominant coupling takes place only between those modes with propagation constants m and n satisfying m - n + = +2/ and coupling to other modes is negligible. Assuming that power gets coupled only among two modes, total field at any z is given as

E ( x, z ) = A(z )E1 ( x, y )e i1z + B(z )E 2 ( x, y )e i2 z

(2)

where E1(x, y), E2(x, y) are modal field profiles of two interacting modes; 1, 2 are their corresponding propagation constants; and A, B are amplitude constants of respective waveguides. Coupling between two modes is described as

dA dB = Be iz & = Ae iz dz dz

(3)

where = 1 - 2, is phase mismatch and is coupling coefficient. Value of depends on waveguide parameters, wavelength of operation, shape of grating and extend of periodic perturbation17. If P1(0) is power launched into port 1 of waveguide 1 at z = 0, then at any value of z, powers propagating in two waveguides are given as

2 2 P1 (z ) = P1 (0 )1 2 sin 2 z & P2 (z ) = P1 (0 ) 2 sin 2 z

(4)

where 2 = 2 + 0.25 2 and = 1 - 2. In Eq (4), measures strength of interaction between two waveguides, which depends on separation between waveguides, grating height, wavelength of operation and grating shape. Photonic switch made of two waveguides of identical propagation constant has = 0. For this

P1 (z ) = P1 (0 )cos 2 (z ) & P2 (z ) = P1 (0 )sin 2 (z )

(5)

At z = /2, 3/2, 5/2, (2m+1)/2, power on waveguide 1 is P1(z) = 0 and on waveguide 2 is P2(z) = P1(0), which indicates that entire power is coupled to waveguide 2. Minimum distance, at which power completely transfers from one waveguide to other waveguide, is given by z = Lc = /2 and is referred as coupling length. Strong interaction implies large value of and, hence, a small coupling length.

Results and Discussion Switching time is an important parameter in designing of optical switch and it depends on coupling length, which in turn depends on physical parameters (waveguides separation, structure of grating, grating height and RIs of film and substrate). Parameters considered in simulation are RI of film (nf=1.723) and substrate (ns=1.711), waveguide spacing (g= 4 m), and grating height (h = 2.5 m). For complete power transfer from port 1 to port 4 (Fig. 2), switching time found for waveguide grating structures is: rectangular, 0.77; triangular, 1.3; and trapezoidal, 0.235 ps (picoseconds). Trapezoidal waveguide grating structure provides less switching time than other grating structures, and also much less than reported technologies (optical MEMS switches4,5, thermal optical switches6,7 and PLZT electro optic switches8,9). As waveguide spacing (varied between 3-7 m; step size, 0.25m) is reduced, the switching time reduces (Fig. 3a). Also, trapezoidal grating structure gives lower switching time than other structures. While looking into performance of switch as a function of grating height, trapezoidal grating structure has fastest switching speed (0.23 ps) for an optimized grating height of 2.5 m as compared to other gratings (Fig. 3b). Also, looking into performance of switch with operating voltage, trapezoidal grating provides lowest switching time (0.2 ps) as compared to other gratings (Fig. 3c). Simulation results show that trapezoidal grating structure provide faster switching taking into account all device parameters. So, this structure was considered for the design of wavelength independent EO switch. Looking into switching characteristics for 2x2 EO waveguide switch (Fig. 4), crosstalk is found < -79 dB at bar state. With electrode voltage of 8.5 V, switching state is in cross state (< -77dB). This switch exhibits relatively very low crosstalk. Transmission power from input port to output port as a function of RI changes due to EO effect (Fig. 5). With zero index contrast, power is maximum in port 3, which is bar state of switch. As index contrast increases, there is a gradual transfer in power from port 3 to port 4. When index contrast is 0.0065, there is maximum power in port 4, which represents cross state of switch. Thus this switch exhibits a bar-state switching at zero voltage with zero RI contrast. Switching characteristics of a trapezoidal waveguide grating switch [RI of film layer (1.73) and substrate (1.711); waveguide separation, 4 m; grating height, 2.5 m; and electrode thickness, 1 m] are shown (Fig. 6). When no voltage is applied to electrodes, signal launched in port 1 comes out of port 3, which is bar state of the switch. As voltage applied to electrode is increased, RI contrast between waveguides increases, causing a gradual shift of power from port 1 to port 4, thus representing cross state of the switch at a drive voltage of 8.5 V. Driving voltage makes an index difference of 0.0065, which makes power launched in port 1 coupled to port 4 (coupling length, 81 m; and switching time, 0.47 ps). As switching time is very less, this switch is very much useful in protection application, so that in the event of failure, network can be recovered soon very quickly without any loss in data. Proposed PEOW grating switch has very low switching time and wavelength independency (Table 1) when compared with other types of switches. Conclusions In proposed PEOW switch, coupled mode theory was used to study switching characteristics with device parameters (waveguide spacing, grating height, grating structure and electrode thickness). This study analyzed rectangular, triangular and trapezoidal waveguide structures for the design of optical switch. Trapezoidal grating structure was found with high speed switching (0.47 ps) and also device length (81 m) makes device compact. Proposed switch is found to be wavelength independent beyond 1400 nm. Thus trapezoidal grating is optimized structure for faster protection in intelligent optical network. References
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Fig. captions
Fig.12x2 optical waveguide grating switch Fig. 2Power transfer from port 1 to port 4 (nf = 1.723, ns=1.711) Fig. 3Switching response of different grating profiles with: a) waveguide spacing; b) grating height; and c) wavelength Fig. 4Switching characteristics as a function of drive voltage Fig. 5Transmission power as a function of index contrast Fig. 6Switching characteristics of a trapezoidal grating electro-optic switch

Table 1Comparison of switching time and wavelength independency of different switch types Switch type Optical MEMS3,4 Thermal optical switch using coated micro resonator5,6 Electronically switchable bragg grating switch8 PLZT electro-optic switches9 GaAs photonic crystal cavities switching10 Photonic crystal optical switch11 Polymer electro-optic waveguide grating switch (proposed) Switching time 7 ms 100 ms 50 ns 10 ns 15 ps 20 s 0.47 ps Wavelength dependency No Yes Yes No Yes Yes No

Fig.12x2 optical waveguide grating switch

Fig. 2Power transfer from port 1 to port 4 (nf = 1.723, ns=1.711)

a)

b)

c) Fig. 3Switching response of different grating profiles with: a) waveguide spacing; b) grating height; and c) wavelength

Fig. 4. Switching characteristics as a function of drive voltage

Fig. 5. Transmission power as a function of index contrast

Fig. 6. Switching characteristics of a trapezoidal grating electro-optic switch