Vertical Silicon Nanowires Based Directional Coupler Optical Router

A fully complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor compatible optical router is demonstrated. The router structure is built using the silicon-organic hybrid platform, while its mechanism is based on the directional coupler operation. The directional coupler waveguides are formed by the arrays of silicon nanowires, while the cladding and voids between the silicon nanowires are filled with an electro-optic polymer. Routing of the optical signal is demonstrated through the change of the coupling length of the directional coupler upon voltage application. The router is characterized by the short length directional coupler of 24 μm, and total footprint of 62 μm
²
, high extinction ratio which reaches 33 dB and low insertion losses of 1.3 dB.