Performance of Single and Coupled Microresonators in Photonic Switching Schemes

Abstract

Applications of single and coupled microresonators in various photonic switching schemes are considered. It is shown that both single and coupled resonators enhance the performance of the switches based on nonlinear optical or electro-optical effect, but the enhancement occurs at the expense of reduced bandwidth. The critical bit rates at which the enhancement is still possible are derived for single and coupled microresonators. It is shown that the choice of optimum microresonator scheme is determined most of all by the intrinsic switching speed of the nonlinear or electro-optic material.