Non-volatile optical switch

Abstract

The invention discloses a non-volatile optical switch. A graphene layer and a tunneling layer / an insulating barrier layer sequentially grown on a substrate from bottom to top, the tunneling layer / theinsulating barrier layer wraps the outside of the graphene layer, and a source electrode and a drain electrode are arranged at the two ends of the upper side of the tunneling layer / the insulating barrier layer respectively. Graphene serves as a charge storage layer. Due to the non-volatile storage characteristic of a floating gate structure and the super-strong electro-optical effect of the graphene material, non-volatile control over light waves is achieved. The patterned graphene layer is designed to generate resonance for light with specific incident frequency, and interaction between graphene and the light waves is enhanced. The two electrodes are made of metal or conductive materials with different work functions or the two electrodes are made of metal or conductive materials different in contact area with the tunneling layer / the insulating barrier layer and identical in power function so that the working voltage of a device can be reduced, the application range of the device is increased, and the energy consumption and heat dissipation of a system are reduced. The optical switch is applied to the fields of optical switches, optical communication, optical networks, optical interconnection and spatial light routing and the like.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention relates to an optical switch, in particular to a non-volatile optical switch. Background technique [0002] With the increasing demand for information transmission and processing speed, the storage capacity of communication data is increasing rapidly. In the process of continuous integration of traditional electrical devices, due to the limitations of electronic transmission itself, its data transmission speed , data storage capacity, anti-interference and other aspects of the development has been limited. [0003] Photons have unique properties such as ultra-fast, strong coherence, and a large amount of information that can be carried. In many ways, they have overcome many shortcomings of electronic transmission. The superiority of light waves as information carriers. With the improvement of integration level and the development of communication system, the demand for lower energy consumption of devices and even the whole system is als...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

In the process of optical information transmission, it is necessary to continuously apply voltage to maintain the working state of the device, resulting in problems such as large energy loss and heat dissipation of the optical information transmission system.

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