A Silicon Optical Transistor

2012/04/24 by Leo T. Varghese, Varghese, Leo T., Fan Li +13
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #FOS: Physical sciences #Optical Network Technologies #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic and Optical Devices

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1204.5515

openalex publication_date 2012/04/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

A fundamental road block for all-optical information processing is the difficulty in realizing a silicon optical transistor with the ability to provide optical gain, input output isolation and buffer action. In this work, we demonstrate an all-optical transistor using optical nonlinearity in microrings. By using weak light to control strong light, we observed an On/Off ratio up to 20 dB. It can compensate losses in other optical devices and provide fan-out capability. The device is ultra compact and is compatible with current complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processing.

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