Nano–opto-electro-mechanical switches operated at CMOS-level voltages
Journal article, 2019

Combining reprogrammable optical networks with complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) electronics is expected to provide a platform for technological developments in on-chip integrated optoelectronics. We demonstrate how opto-electro-mechanical effects in micrometer-scale hybrid photonic-plasmonic structures enable light switching under CMOS voltages and low optical losses (0.1 decibel). Rapid (for example, tens of nanoseconds) switching is achieved by an electrostatic, nanometer-scale perturbation of a thin, and thus low-mass, gold membrane that forms an air-gap hybrid photonic-plasmonic waveguide. Confinement of the plasmonic portion of the light to the variable-height air gap yields a strong opto-electro-mechanical effect, while photonic confinement of the rest of the light minimizes optical losses. The demonstrated hybrid architecture provides a route to develop applications for CMOS-integrated, reprogrammable optical systems such as optical neural networks for deep learning.
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Published in

Science

00368075 (ISSN) 10959203 (eISSN)

Vol. 366 Issue 6467 p. 860-864

Categorizing

Subject Categories (SSIF 2011)

Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics

Other Physics Topics

Condensed Matter Physics

Identifiers

DOI

10.1126/science.aay8645

PubMed

31727832

More information

Latest update

12/3/2019