Artificial gauge field engineered waveguide superlattices for high-performance thermo-optic switch

Photonic switching technologies have been proffered as competitive replacements for electronic switches, due to high power efficiency, large bandwidth density, and low cost. Here, a high-performance 1 × 8 thermo-optic switch based on artificial gauge-field engineered waveguide superlattices is proposed. This switch exhibits an average insertion loss of 1.96 dB and keeps crosstalk below −20 dB over a 60 nm bandwidth. By leveraging topology optimization, this thermo-optic phase shifter eliminates the need for intricate air-trench or undercut processes while delivering exceptional metrics: low power consumption (2.52 mW/𝜋), low loss (0.4 dB), sub-1V driving voltage for 2𝜋 tuning, wideband operation (60 nm), and a compact footprint (245 μm × 15 μm). The low driving voltage of this design enables the adoption of low-cost, general-purpose CMOS technology, leading to a significant reduction in the cost of electronic integrated circuits (EICs).