Hybrid graphene/silicon integrated optical isolators with photonic spin–orbit interaction

Journal Article · Mon Apr 11 04:00:00 EDT 2016 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4945715· OSTI ID:22591549

Ma, Jingwen; Sun, Xiankai ^[1]; Xi, Xiang; Yu, Zejie ^[1]

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1. Department of Electronic Engineering, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories (Hong Kong)

Optical isolators are an important building block in photonic computation and communication. In traditional optics, isolators are realized with magneto-optical garnets. However, it remains challenging to incorporate such materials on an integrated platform because of the difficulty in material growth and bulky device footprint. Here, we propose an ultracompact integrated isolator by exploiting graphene's magneto-optical property on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The photonic nonreciprocity is achieved because the cyclotrons in graphene experiencing different optical spins exhibit different responses to counterpropagating light. Taking advantage of cavity resonance effects, we have numerically optimized a device design, which shows excellent isolation performance with the extinction ratio over 45 dB and the insertion loss around 12 dB at a wavelength near 1.55 μm. Featuring graphene's CMOS compatibility and substantially reduced device footprint, our proposal sheds light on monolithic integration of nonreciprocal photonic devices.

• OSTI ID: 22591549
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 15 Vol. 108; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
CALCULATION METHODS
EQUIPMENT
GARNETS
GRAPHENE
L-S COUPLING
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
SILICON
SPIN
VISIBLE RADIATION