TY - JOUR
T1 - An ultra-small, low-power, all-optical flip-flop memory on a silicon chip
AU - Liu, Liu
AU - Kumar, R.
AU - Huybrechts, K.
AU - Spuesens, T.
AU - Roelkens, G.
AU - Geluk, E.J.
AU - de Vries, T.
AU - Regreny, P.
AU - Van Thourhout, D.
AU - Baets, R.
AU - Morthier, G.
PY - 2010
Y1 - 2010
N2 - Ultra-small, low-power, all-optical switching and memory elements, such as all-optical flip-flops, as well as photonic integrated circuits of many such elements, are in great demand for all-optical signal buffering, switching and processing. Silicon-on-insulator is considered to be a promising platform to accommodate such photonic circuits in large-scale configurations. Through heterogeneous integration of InP membranes onto silicon-on-insulator, a single microdisk laser with a diameter of 7.5 mu m, coupled to a silicon-on-insulator wire waveguide, is demonstrated here as an all-optical flip-flop working in a continuous-wave regime with an electrical power consumption of a few milliwatts, allowing switching in 60 ps with 1.8 fJ optical energy. The total power consumption and the device size are, to the best of our knowledge, the smallest reported to date at telecom wavelengths. This is also the only electrically pumped, all-optical flip-flop on silicon built upon complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology.
AB - Ultra-small, low-power, all-optical switching and memory elements, such as all-optical flip-flops, as well as photonic integrated circuits of many such elements, are in great demand for all-optical signal buffering, switching and processing. Silicon-on-insulator is considered to be a promising platform to accommodate such photonic circuits in large-scale configurations. Through heterogeneous integration of InP membranes onto silicon-on-insulator, a single microdisk laser with a diameter of 7.5 mu m, coupled to a silicon-on-insulator wire waveguide, is demonstrated here as an all-optical flip-flop working in a continuous-wave regime with an electrical power consumption of a few milliwatts, allowing switching in 60 ps with 1.8 fJ optical energy. The total power consumption and the device size are, to the best of our knowledge, the smallest reported to date at telecom wavelengths. This is also the only electrically pumped, all-optical flip-flop on silicon built upon complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology.
U2 - 10.1038/NPHOTON.2009.268
DO - 10.1038/NPHOTON.2009.268
M3 - Journal article
SN - 1749-4885
VL - 4
SP - 182
EP - 187
JO - Nature Photonics
JF - Nature Photonics
IS - 3
ER -