Slow-light-enhanced energy efficiency for graphene microheaters on silicon photonic crystal waveguides

• Published in: Nature communications Vol. 8; no. 1; p. 14411
• Main Authors: Yan, Siqi, Zhu, Xiaolong, Frandsen, Lars Hagedorn, Xiao, Sanshui, Mortensen, N. Asger, Dong, Jianji, Ding, Yunhong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 09.02.2017; Nature Publishing Group; Nature Portfolio
• Subjects: 140/125; 140/133; 142/126; 639/624/1075/1079; 639/624/399/1099; 639/624/399/918/1054; 639/624/400/1102; Energy consumption; Graphene; Heat conductivity; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information industry; Light; multidisciplinary; Optics; Photonics; Response time; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Silicon; Denmark
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/ncomms14411

Slow light has been widely utilized to obtain enhanced nonlinearities, enhanced spontaneous emissions and increased phase shifts owing to its ability to promote light–matter interactions. By incorporating a graphene on a slow-light silicon photonic crystal waveguide, here we experimentally demonstrate an energy-efficient graphene microheater with a tuning efficiency of 1.07 nmmW −1 and power consumption per free spectral range of 3.99 mW. The rise and decay times (10–90%) are only 750 and 525 ns, which, to the best of our knowledge, are the fastest reported response times for microheaters in silicon photonics. The corresponding figure of merit of the device is 2.543 nW s, one order of magnitude better than results reported in previous studies. The influence of the length and shape of the graphene heater to the tuning efficiency is further investigated, providing valuable guidelines for enhancing the tuning efficiency of the graphene microheater. Slow light can be used to sustain strong light–matter interaction in silicon photonics. Here, the authors combine graphene with a silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguide, demonstrating a fast and energy-efficient graphene microheater.