Artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices for high-performance thermo-optic switches

Photonic switching technologies have been proffered as competitive replacements for electronic switches, due to high power efficiency, high bandwidth density, and low cost. Here, a high-performance 1 × 8 thermo-optic switch based on artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices is proposed. This switch exhibits an average insertion loss of 1.96 dB and keeps crosstalk below -20 dB over a 60 nm bandwidth. By leveraging topology optimization, this thermo-optic phase shifter eliminates the need for intricate air-trench or undercut processes while delivering exceptional metrics: low power consumption (2.52 mW/<i>π</i>), low loss (0.4 dB), sub-1V driving voltage for 2<i>π</i> tuning, wideband operation (60 nm), and a compact footprint (245 μm × 15 μm).