Next generation of Packet Optical Add-Drop Multiplexer nodes based on electrically-controlled hybrid III-V/silicon optical gate array

We report a hybrid silicon optical gate array based on a silicon waveguide with a III-V gain medium and two vertical grating couplers. The gates show a fast switching time, high extinction ratio and positive fiber-to-fiber optical gain. The dynamic behavior of such device is evaluated under electrically-controlled gating. We further focus on one gate performance in a packet-switched network. We demonstrate sub-wavelength switching operations with multi-format and multi-bit rate optical packet based on direct and coherent detection.