Thermally tunable high Q-factor and low-power silicon resonators using graphene transparent electrodes

Abstract

Tunable and low-power microcavities play a vital role in facilitating the development of large-scale photonic integrated circuits. Among various tuning methods, thermal tuning has gained significant popularity due to its convenience and stability, especially in the fields of optical neural networks and quantum information processing. In recent years, graphene thermal tuning has emerged as a promising technique, offering both tunability and power efficiency by eliminating the need for thick spacers to prevent light absorption. In this study, we propose and fabricate a silicon-based on-chip Fano resonator with graphene nano-heaters. This innovative Fano structure incorporates a scattering block and can be easily manufactured in large quantities. Experimental results demonstrate that the resonator exhibits desirable characteristics, including a high quality factor of approximately 31000 and a low state-switching power consumption of around 1 mW. The temporal responses of the microcavity exhibit satisfactory modulation speed, with a rise time of 9.8 μs and a fall time of 16.6 μs. The findings of this research offer an alternative solution for the future development of large-scale tunable and low-power-consumption optical networks, with potential applications in optical filters and switches.