Cavity-Enabled Self-Electro-Optic Bistability in Silicon Photonics

Abstract

We propose a new type of bistable device for silicon photonics, using the self-electro-optic effect within an optical cavity. Since the bistability does not depend on the intrinsic optical nonlinearity of the material, but is instead engineered by means of an optoelectronic feedback, it appears at low optical powers. This bistable device satisfies all the basic criteria required in an optical switch to build a scalable digital optical computing system.