Front. Optoelectron.

2020, 13(2): 129–138

https://doi.org/10.1007/s12200-020-1058-3

REVIEW ARTICLE

Performance of integrated optical switches based on

2D materials and beyond

Yuhan YAO, Zhao CHENG, Jianji DONG (✉), Xinliang ZHANG

Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China

© Higher Education Press 2020

Abstract Applications of optical switches, such as signal Conventional integrated optical switches utilize varia-
routing and data-intensive computing, are critical in optical tions in the effective refractive index of the waveguide
interconnects and optical computing. Integrated optical produced, including the thermo-optic effect [3–7] or
switches enabled by two-dimensional (2D) materials and plasma dispersion [8–10]. However, conventional switches
beyond, such as graphene and black phosphorus, have have hit a technical limit imposed by the properties of
demonstrated many advantages in terms of speed and traditional bulk materials, which cannot adequately satisfy
energy consumption compared to their conventional the growing needs [11]. Consequently, investigators have
silicon-based counterparts. Here we review the state-of- developed hybrid structures to improve the performance of
the-art of optical switches enabled by 2D materials and optical switches, using active substances, such as two-
beyond and organize them into several tables. The dimensional (2D) materials [12,13] and polymers [14,15],
performance tables and future projections show the that are introduced into the traditional optical devices. In
frontiers of optical switches fabricated from 2D materials recent years, 2D materials, such as graphene, black
and beyond, providing researchers with an overview of this phosphorus, and transition-metal dichalcogenides, have
field and enabling them to identify existing challenges and become increasingly attractive for integrated photonic
predict promising research directions. applications in light sources, modulators, and photodetec-
tors [16–21]. Their atomically thin structures reduce the
Keywords two-dimensional (2D) materials, integrated dimensionality of the material, resulting in unique optical
optics, optical switches, performance table and electronic properties — including high electron mobi-
lity [22–25], strong anisotropy [26,27], strong photolumi-
nescence [28,29], tunable bandgaps [30,31], large optical
1 Introduction nonlinearity [32–36], etc. — that provide great opportu-
nities for improving the performance of optoelectronic
Optical switches are increasingly considered for applica- devices. In particular, the combination of 2D materials and
tions in optical computing and interconnections in order to complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-
meet the ever-growing performance demands in data compatible integrated photonics appears very promising.
centers [1,2]. With the advent of the Big Data era, Moore’s It can compensate for the intrinsic drawbacks of the
Law is approaching its physical limit. Traditional photonic waveguide itself [37], thus providing great potential for
integrated circuits (PICs) face crucial challenges in energy realizing high-performance optical switches. Note that all
consumption, operation speed, and fabrication cost. As the the optical switches mentioned below refer particularly to
basic units of large-scale PICs, integrated optical switches devices integrated with 2D materials and beyond.
are of great significance for use in interconnections, the In communication systems, the properties of switches,
performance of which always determines the upper limit of such as the extinction ratio, insertion loss, and footprint,
the whole circuit. To provide switches with greater must be carefully considered. We specifically focus on the
applicability to high-performance optoelectronics, it is operation speed and energy consumption because these
essential to design an optical switch with a small footprint, two parameters are of most concern for realistic applica-
low energy consumption, and fast response time. tions in large-scale PICs. Furthermore, we expect that
future interconnect technologies will demand optical
Received June 9, 2020; accepted June 15, 2020 components on a chip that consume less energy than one
E-mail: jjdong@mail.hust.edu.cn femtojoule per bit [38]. In particular, we present complete
130 Front. Optoelectron. 2020, 13(2): 129–138

tables containing representative optical switches, provid- nisms have been explored to trigger the optical switching
ing a useful information resource that summarizes the work process in integrated devices, which can be classified into
in this area. In addition, the performance of various optical all-optical, thermo-optical, and electro-optical switching.
switches is summarized in terms of switching time and Energy consumption in integrated devices is always used
energy consumption. These data will be updated with to rank the switching performance [38]. To allow for a
further progress in this field to provide more support for detailed and comprehensive analysis, we chose different
investigators. units to evaluate the energy consumption for each type of
mechanism. We selected energy per bit (E/bit) for all-
optical and electro-optical switching and selected the
2 Criterion for statistics minimum power per free spectral range (FSR) (mW/FSR)
for thermo-optical switching.
The optical switches discussed in this article refer to time-
domain switches or optical modulators rather than to
spatial switches or optical routers that use N
N optical- 3 Performance tables
switch fabric, which can be built up by connecting the
basic switching cells into switching-fabric topologies [39– Table 1 lists the representative studies of all-optical
47]. In addition, noteworthy results in mode-multiplexed switches over the years. Most are 2D materials-based
photonic switches are not included [48–51], as we focus hybrid structures, although a few are polymer-based
exclusively on single-mode systems. All the data in the devices. The columns include the switching principle,
following tables and figures are taken from studies material, device structure, energy consumption, switching
published before April 2020. Different physical mecha- time, and publication date. Table 2 lists several excellent

Table 1 Performance list of all-optical switches with energy consumption and switching time
switching principle material device structure energy consumption switching time publication time Ref.
/(fJ$bit–1) /ps
carrier-induced nonlinearity InGaAsP PhC nanocavity 0.66 35 May. 2010 [53]
carrier-induced nonlinearity InGaAsP PhC nanocavity 2.5 44 Feb. 2012 [54]
saturable absorption graphene plasmonic waveguide 35 0.26 Nov. 2019 [55]
optical nonlinearity polymer photonic-bandgap 520 1.2 Feb. 2008 [56]
microcavity
third-order nonlinearity WSe2 metallic waveguide 650 0.29 Jul. 2019 [57]
saturable absorption graphene straight waveguide 2100 1.65 Mar. 2020 [58]
carrier-induced nonlinearity CdS free-standing nanowires NA NA Jun. 2017 [59]
/silicon waveguides
photoluminescence WS2 straight waveguide NA NA Nov. 2017 [60]

Notes: NA—not available, PhC—photonic crystal.

Table 2 Performance list of thermo-optical switches with tuning efficiency and rise/decay times
switching principle device structure tuning efficiency/(mW$FSR–1) rise/decay times/ms publication time Ref.
graphene microheaters silicon PhC waveguides 3.99 0.75/0.525 Feb. 2017 [61]
graphene heater silicon MZI 6.6 980/520 Mar. 2020 [62]
black arsenic-phosphorus micro-
silicon MZI 9.48 30/20 Jan. 2020 [63]
heater
thermal-optic effect of black phos-
silicon MRR 12.2 0.479/0.113 Jan. 2020 [64]
phorus
graphene nanoheaters silicon microdisk resonator 47.25 12.8/8.8 Feb. 2016 [65]
graphene heat conductor silicon MZI 141 20/20 Dec. 2014 [66]
thermal conductivity of graphene Si3N4 MRR 683.5 0.253/0.888 Dec. 2017 [67]
graphene heater silicon MRR NA 0.75/0.8 Oct. 2015 [68]
graphene microheater silicon nanobeam cavity 1.5 nm/mW 1.11/1.47 Aug. 2017 [69]
Δl
Notes: NA—not available, PhC—photonic crystal, MZI—Mach–Zehnder interferometer, MRR—microring resonator. The phase change is calculated as Δf ¼ 2π.
FSR
 Yuhan YAO et al. Performance of integrated optical switches based on 2D materials and beyond 131

thermo-optical switches. Here the 2D materials work as 10 years. All-optical switching has the fastest switching
heat conductors or transparent heaters. Table 3 lists the time (sub-picosecond level), since it can be completely
best-performing electro-optical switches, which are the implemented in the optical domain, avoiding the conver-
most studied and the closest to practical industrial sion from external electronic signals to optical ones.
applications, with the best power consumption of 0.7 Thermo-optical switches typically employ heating to
fJ/bit [52]. change the phase of the light beam. Graphene, used as a
The following charts track the progress and trends of the transparent heater, has been integrated onto various silicon
switching energy and switching time. Figure 1(a) shows photonic-crystal waveguides to provide enhanced tuning
the trend in energy consumption of all-optical and electro- efficiency, and it outperforms conventional metallic
optical switches in recent years. The overall energy microheaters [61,69]. Unfortunately, the response times
consumption of all-optical switches based on 2D materials are relatively slow (hundreds of nanoseconds to tens of
is 1–3 orders of magnitude lower than that of electro- microseconds) because of the intrinsically slow thermal
optical switches, the performance of which fluctuates diffusivity. In contrast, the device response of electro-
slightly around hundreds of femtojoules. Notably, the optical switches is limited by the electrical bandwidth
switching energy of optical switches with plasmonic- rather than by the intrinsic speed of the material. Since
graphene hybrid waveguides can be reduced significantly, graphene has an ultrahigh electron mobility [23], the
to 35 fJ/bit [55]. This suggests a new solution for energy- modulation speed is consequently limited by the RC time
efficient processing, which is further discussed in the next constant of the modulator, which can be enhanced with
section. Figure 1(b) depicts the tuning efficiency of structural optimization of the electro-optical modulators
thermo-optic switches over time. By incorporating mono- [71,74,76,78,79].
layer graphene with a silicon photonic-crystal waveguide, Next, we further subdivide optical switches into
a graphene microheater has the lowest reported power categories according to the different device structures.
consumption (3.99 mW per FSR), which is attributed to the Figure 3 shows the performance of various switching
slow-light waveguide greatly enhancing the light-matter devices in two dimensions (energy and time) simulta-
interactions. neously. For all-optical switches (Fig. 3(a)), photonic-
Figure 2 presents the trend in switching time of all- crystal microcavities and plasmonic waveguides show
optical, thermo-optical, and electro-optical switches over obvious advantages on the energy-time-product line
time. Overall, the speed of all three mechanisms has compared to conventional waveguides. For thermo-optic
dropped by almost two orders of magnitude over the past switches (Fig. 3(b)), Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI)
Table 3 Performance list of electro-optical switches with energy consumption and operation speed
switching principle material device structure energy consumption operation speed publication time Ref.
/(fJ$bit–1) /GHz
Pockels effect polymer silicon slot waveguide 0.7 NA Feb. 2015 [52]
electro-optic effect polymer plasmonic slot 25 70 Jul. 2015 [70]
waveguide
electrically tuning graphene/graphene silicon PhC waveguide 275 12 Nov. 2019 [71]
capacitor
electrically gating graphene air-slot PhC nanocavity 340 NA Jan. 2013 [72]
electrically tuning graphene silicon rib waveguide 350 2.6–5.9 Jan. 2016 [73]
electrically tuning graphene/graphene silicon nitride MRR 800 30 Jul. 2015 [74]
capacitor
gate tuning Fermi level graphene silicon MRR 900 NA Nov. 2014 [75]
electrically tuning double-layer graphene silicon waveguide 1000 1 Feb. 2012 [76]
Fermi level
electrically gating graphene-boron nitride silicon PhC nanocavity 1000 1.2 Feb. 2015 [77]
heterostructure
electrically tuning graphene silicon MZI 1000 5 Dec. 2017 [78]
electrically gating graphene/graphene silicon straight 1400 35 Sep. 2016 [79]
capacitor waveguide
Pockels effect polymer silicon slot waveguide NA 100 May. 2014 [80]
electrically tuning graphene silicon bus waveguide NA 1.2 May. 2011 [81]
Fermi level

Notes: PhC—photonic crystal, MRR—microring resonator, MZI—Mach–Zehnder interferometer, NA—not available. The energy per bit (E/bit) is calculated as
E=bit ¼ 1=4CV 2 , where C is the device capacitance and V is the driving voltage [82].
132 Front. Optoelectron. 2020, 13(2): 129–138

type optical switches are all located on a roughly similar diffusion itself, the fastest switching time is only in the
energy-time-product line, but the photonic-crystal wave- hundreds of nanoseconds. An electro-optic switch is one
guides and optimized microring resonators are located based on the electro-optic effect, that is, on the change in
away from this line. For electro-optical switches the refractive index of the material caused by a direct
(Fig. 3(c)), plasmonic waveguides show significant current (DC) or an alternating current (AC) electric field.
advantages. This effect can be obtained either from nonlinear optical
materials or from linear electro-optic materials. Electro-
optic switching is widely used in high-speed optical
4 What lies behind the statistics interconnections, due to its ability to connect the electrical
domain with the optical domain. However, it often requires
4.1 Pros and cons of the three different mechanisms complex structural optimization, and the insertion loss is
relatively high, which are challenges that remain to be
As mentioned above, optical switches can be classified into improved in the future.
all-optical, thermo-optical, and electro-optical switches,
according to the switching mechanism. All-optical 4.2 Results for different device structures
switches are the most promising candidates for use in
PICs because of their energy-efficient power consumption Figure 3 illustrates schematically that the overall perfor-
and high-speed switching times, since they avoid electro- mance of a device is affected by the different waveguide
optical conversion. All-optical switches use the nonlinear structures, such as a photonic-crystal waveguide, plasmo-
properties of the material to control one light beam by nic waveguide, microring, and MZI. The MZI-type optical
another. The key to reducing energy consumption without switches are among the most commonly used building
affecting speed is effectively to enhance the nonlinear blocks in PICs, and they have great advantages in the
interaction in a limited volume. This can be achieved by fabrication process, manufacturing cost, and good scal-
using high-quality microring resonators, photonic-crystal ability. However, because they are non-resonant devices,
microcavities, and metallic nanostructures. An all-optical they have been criticized for their lower energy efficiency
switch with a graphene-loaded plasmonic waveguide and less compactness. Additional control of the powers
shows superior performance, with an ultralow switching obtained from the two arms of the interferometer is also
energy of 35 fJ/bit and an ultrafast switching time of 260 required to maximize the extinction ratio [83]. Conversely,
fs, thanks to the extremely strong light confinement in the the resonance effect in an optical microcavity is capable of
plasmonic slot waveguide, which enhances the nonlinear enhancing the light sensitivity. Photonic-crystal wave-
absorption in graphene [55]. By using 2D materials as guides and microring resonators can significantly increase
thermal conductors or transparent nanoheaters, thermo- the light-matter interaction inside the switch. Therefore,
optical switching can be achieved with a simple config- resonant cavities with large quality-to-volume (Q/V) ratios
uration having high efficiency, an easy fabrication process, are very promising candidates for reducing the energy
and low cost. However, due to the slowness of thermal consumption and shrinking the footprint of a device.

Fig. 1 (a) Trends in energy consumption of all-optical and electro-optical switches over time. (b) Trends in the energy consumption of
thermo-optical switches over time
 Yuhan YAO et al. Performance of integrated optical switches based on 2D materials and beyond 133

Fig. 2 Trends in the switching time of all-optical, electro-optical, and thermo-optical switches over time. The switching time is the
average of the rise and decay times

Fig. 3 (a) Performance of various all-optical switches. (b) Performance of various thermo-optical switches. (c) Performance of various
electro-optical switches. The switching time and switching energy per bit/tuning efficiency are indicated for switches using a photonic-
crystal waveguide (PhCW) [53,54,61,71], plasmonic waveguide (WG) [55,57,70], straight waveguide [58,76,79], rib waveguide [73],
Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) [62,63,66,78], microdisk [65], and microring resonator (MRR) [64,67,74]

However, the resonance effect is usually for light of a 4.3 Ultrafast integrated optical switches with ultralow
specific frequency, which limits the operating-wavelength switching energies remain an ongoing challenge
range, and both thermal and fabrication tolerance remain
challenges for practical use [84]. Combinations of At present, the integration of 2D materials into photonic
nanomaterials with integrated plasmonic nanostructures platforms is still limited. Although they are not very
are also being explored to provide an alternative way to mature, 2D materials are far more accessible and flexible
enhance the light-matter interactions [85–89]. Metallic than their III-V counterparts [91–94], and they may prove
nanostructures that support surface plasmon polaritons to be more adaptable for on-chip integration using simple,
show strong abilities to concentrate light within the cheap, and scalable post-processing techniques. In the rich
subwavelength region, providing great potential for family of 2D materials, more candidates are worth
realizing high-performance optoelectronic devices with exploring, and the bottleneck in utilizing them for large-
compact footprints [90]. scale applications may soon be overtaken by recent
134 Front. Optoelectron. 2020, 13(2): 129–138

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ACS Photonics, 2019, 6(1): 154–161 research interests include 2D materials-
88. Ding Y, Cheng Z, Zhu X, Yvind K, Dong J, Galili M, Hu H, based photonic modulators and photode-
Mortensen N A, Xiao S, Oxenløwe L K. Ultra-compact integrated tectors as well as photonic crystal wave-
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Jianji Dong is a Professor at Wuhan
90. Emboras A, Hoessbacher C, Haffner C, Heni W, Koch U, Ma P,
National Laboratory for Optoelectronics,
Fedoryshyn Y, Niegemann J, Hafner C, Leuthold J. Electrically
Huazhong University of Science and Tech-
controlled plasmonic switches and modulators. IEEE Journal of
nology (HUST), China. He received his Ph.
Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, 2015, 21(4): 276–283
D. degree of Optical Engineering from
91. Srinivasan S A, Pantouvaki M, Gupta S, Chen H T, Verheyen P,
HUST in 2008. Subsequently, he worked as
Lepage G, Roelkens G, Saraswat K, Thourhout D V, Absil P,
postdoc at Cambridge University, UK until
Campenhout J V. 56 Gb/s germanium waveguide electro-absorption
2010. From March 2010, he returned to
modulator. Journal of Lightwave Technology, 2016, 34(2): 419–424
HUST and was promoted to a full professor
92. Chen L, Dong P, Lipson M. High performance germanium
in 2013. His research interests include integrated microwave
photodetectors integrated on submicron silicon waveguides by
photonics, silicon photonics, and photonic computing. He has
low temperature wafer bonding. Optics Express, 2008, 16(15):
published more than 100 journal papers, including in Nature
11513–11518
Communications, Light Science and Applications, and Physical
93. Liu J, Camacho-Aguilera R, Bessette J T, Sun X, Wang X, Cai Y,
Review Letters. He has made some special contributions to energy-
Kimerling L C, Michel J. Ge-on-Si optoelectronics. Thin Solid
efficient graphene silicon microheater, programmable temporal
Films, 2012, 520(8): 3354–3360
cloak, and complex spectrum analyzer of orbital angular momentum
94. Wang Z, Tian B, Pantouvaki M, Guo W, Absil P, Van Campenhout
mode. He was honored with the Fund of Excellent Youth Scholar by
J, Merckling C, Van Thourhout D. Room-temperature InP
the National Natural Science Foundation of China and honored with
distributed feedback laser array directly grown on silicon. Nature
the First Award of Natural Science of Hubei Province. He is the
Photonics, 2015, 9(12): 837–842
editorial member of Scientific Reports, associate editor of IET
95. Liu Y, Huang Y, Duan X. Van der Waals integration before and
Optoelectronics, and executive editor-in-chief of Frontier of
beyond two-dimensional materials. Nature, 2019, 567(7748): 323–
Optoelectronics. He is an IEEE Senior Member and OSA member.
333
138 Front. Optoelectron. 2020, 13(2): 129–138

Xinliang Zhang received his Ph.D. degree

in Physical Electronics from Huazhong
University of Science and Technology
(HUST), Wuhan, China in 2001. He is
currently with Wuhan National Laboratory
for Optoelectronics and School of Optical
and Electronic Information, HUST as a
Professor. He is the author or coauthor of
more than 300 journal and conference
papers. His current research interests include InP-based and Si-
based devices and integration for optical network, high-performance
computing and microwave photonics. In 2016, he was elected as an
OSA Fellow.