Polymer-polypyrrole nanoparticles-polymer (P³) sandwich waveguide for all-optical switching

Optical switches play a pivotal role in photonic integrated circuits, finding broad applications in optical communications, computing, and sensing. To enhance their performance, numerous improvements have been reported, focusing solely on individual aspects such as architecture, material, and modulation. However, these efforts have lacked all-aspect improvements to pursue simple structure, rapid response time, low power consumption, and compatible chip integration. To address this issue, we, to our best knowledge, are the first to comprehensively consider all these aspects and propose a new all-optical switching design that is entirely distinct from commonly used microring resonator and Mach–Zehnder interferometer types. The new architecture features an ultra-simplified polymer-polypyrrole nanoparticles (PPy-NP)-polymer (P 3 ) sandwich waveguide, utilizing SU-8 photoresist—a material characterized by its high thermo-optic refractive index variation and exceptional doping properties—along with PPy-NPs, which exhibit high photothermal efficiency to enable all-optical modulation. We have verified the all-optical P 3 switch, which exhibits optimal performance with a power consumption of 1.18 mW, significantly lower than silicon-integrated optical switches, and a rapid response time of 53.9 µs, much faster than polymer-based switches. Furthermore, the simplicity of our scheme and its compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processes greatly facilitate the fabrication process. Therefore, we envision that our all-aspect design offers a promising concept for innovations in optical switches as well as devices in photonic integrated circuits, paving the way for novel configurations that surpass the limitations of current devices.