Optomechanical coupling behavior of multilayer nano-waveguides

Abstract

The all-optical nano-switch has aroused considerable attention due to its fast switching and potential applications in silicon integrated photonics. The high power-consuming, however, limits its implementation, which can be avoided by mechanical Kerr effect. Multilayered structures could significantly enhance mechanical Kerr effect. In this paper, we propose a general method for analyzing optomechanical behavior of multilayer nano-waveguides. Moreover, we design three stacked ways for multilayer nano-waveguides: periodic stack, arithmetic stack, and geometric stack. An interesting result is that the optical gradient force and bending deflection will converge to a stable value if the stacked layer number is, respectively, larger than 26, 28, and 26, for the three stacked ways. This indicates that if the stacked layer number goes beyond the certain number, increasing the number of layers is useless for enhancing optical gradient forces and bending deflection. We further find that for arithmetic stack, the stable values of optical gradient forces and bending deflection are independent of common difference factor. The present method and results may offer a promising pathway for the design and optimization of multilayer all-optical nano-switches driven by optical gradient forces.Please check the edit made in the article title.Done.