All-optical high performance graphene-photonic crystal switch

The all-optical switch is realized based on nonlinear transmission changes in Fano resonance of 2D photonic crystals (PhC) which enhances the light intensity on the graphene in PhC; and in this study, the graphene layer is used as the nonlinear material. The refractive index change of graphene layer leads to a shift in the Fano resonance frequency due to the input light intensity through the Kerr nonlinear effect. Through finite-difference time-domain simulation, it is found that the high performance of all-optical switching can be achieved by the designed structure with a threshold pump intensity as low as MW/cm2. This structure is featured by optical bistability. The obtained results are applicable in micro optical integrated circuits for modulators, switches and logic elements for optical computation.