Method of fabricating an optical switch
AssigneeThe Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University
InventorsMichel J.F. Digonnet, Anuranjita Tewary, Mark Brongersma
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Abstract
Aa method fabricates an optical switch comprising a microsphere coated with silicon nanocrystals. The method includes providing a silica optical fiber. The method further includes melting at least a portion of the fiber to form at least one silica microsphere. The method further includes coating the microsphere with a silica layer. The method further includes precipitating silicon nanocrystals within the silica layer by annealing the microsphere. The method further includes passivating the nanocrystals by annealing the microsphere in a hydrogen-containing atmosphere.
Claims19
A method fabricates an optical switch comprising a microsphere coated with silicon nanocrystals, the method comprises:
- providing a silica optical fiber;
- melting at least a portion of the fiber to form at least one silica microsphere;
- coating the at least one microsphere with a silica layer;
- precipitating silicon nanocrystals within the silica layer by annealing the at least one microsphere;
- and
- passivating the nanocrystals by annealing the at least one microsphere in a hydrogen-containing atmosphere.
A method of optical switching, the method comprising:
- providing an optical switch comprising an optical coupler and a microresonator optically coupled to the optical coupler and having a plurality of nanoparticles;
- and
- receiving an optical pulse by the optical switch, wherein at least a portion of the optical pulse is absorbed by the nanoparticles of the microresonator such that at least a portion of the microresonator undergoes an elevation of temperature and a corresponding refractive index change when the optical pulse has an optical power greater than a predetermined threshold level.
An optical switch comprising:
- a microresonator comprising a silicon-rich silicon oxide layer and a plurality of silicon nanoparticles within the silicon-rich silicon oxide layer, the microresonator configured to receive signal light having a signal wavelength and to receive a pump pulse having a pump wavelength, wherein at least a portion of the microresonator is responsive to the pump pulse by undergoing a refractive index change at the signal wavelength;
- and
- an optical coupler optically coupled to the microresonator and configured to be optically coupled to a pump source and to a signal source, wherein the optical coupler transmits the pump pulse from the pump source to the microresonator and transmits the signal light from the signal source to the microresonator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.