Event time:
Tuesday, February 18, 2020 - 2:00pm to 3:00pm
Location:
YQI Seminar Room
Event description:
Can vanadium dioxide enable ultrafast switching in silicon photonics?
A quarter century ago, the photo-induced insulator-to-metal transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide (VO2) was found to occur on a picosecond time scale, fueling interest in possible applications for ultrafast switching, such as silicon photonics. I will review recent fundamental studies of the ultrafast IMT relevant to the challenge of all-optical switching in this application space. In conclusion, I will describe our recent demonstration of sub-picosecond switching of a TE-mode pulse in a silicon waveguide, using the signal (1550 nm) and idler (1670 nm) beams generated in an optical parametric amplifier as the probe and pump beams, respectively.