Proposal of polarization-independent silicon wire-waveguide directional coupler optical switch

We propose a polarization-independent silicon wire-waveguide directional coupler optical switch (DC-OS) by adjusting the propagation constant difference between the guided modes. The thermo-optic (TO) switching power consumption is as low as 18.5mW. This polarization-independent DC-OS is expected to be valuable for optical interconnection in silicon photonics.