Download Low noise all optical switch and GeSn Laser for silicon photonics

Master’s Thesis Defense
Wednesday, April 13, 2016
12:30 PM in FH 580
LOW NOISE ALL OPTICAL SWITCH AND GeSn LASER FOR
SILICON PHOTONICS
Yun Zhao
University of Dayton
Abstract
Silicon based electronics revolutionized the second half of the 20th centenary.
Moore’s law has been successfully predicting the growth of integrated circuits
for more than 40 years, but the trend has slowed down. To keep meeting with
the ever so strong demands, new breakthrough is keenly needed. With the
inspiring success of optical communication technology, many researchers believe
this breakthrough relies on bringing optics onto silicon chips. This leads to the
study of silicon photonics.
All optical switch is one of the versatile components in silicon photonics. In
optical interconnections, where on chip metal wires are replaced by waveguides,
it can route the signals to the right destinations. Compared with traditional
optical switches, all optical switch requires less power and generates less heat,
which qualities are highly valued for large data center and high performance
computing applications. In the future optical computing systems, it can serve as
the logic gates. It is also likely to find its place in the more advanced quantum
communication networks. On silicon chip laser is another fundamental
component for silicon photonics. A scalable solution, where time consumption
does not grow with the silicon wafer size is not yet found.
In this thesis, we demonstrate two promising devices that is useful for silicon