Analysis and Design Optimization of a Hybrid VO2/Silicon2 $\times$ 2 Microring Switch

The metal-to-insulator transition (MIT) property of vanadium dioxide (VO2) has recently been used in several application fields such as plasmonics, sensing, metamaterials, and optical modulation. Due to the MIT nature, VO
₂
allows a huge change in its complex refractive index that can be electrooptically controlled. In this paper, the analysis and design optimization of a 2 × 2 microring switch based on a hybrid VO
₂
/silicon waveguide structure is addressed. Switching is achieved by exploiting the change in both absorption loss and phase shift that occurs in VO
₂
when changing from the insulating to the metallic state. The device is optimized to minimize insertion losses and crosstalk. An active length of only μm is required to achieve a data throughput rate higher than 500 Gb/s at a single optical wavelength.