Dual-mode 2 × 2 electro-optic switch on a SOI platform.

Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) technology is promising for enhancing the capacity of communication networks. In this Letter, we demonstrate a dual-mode 2 × 2 electro-optical switch on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The dual-mode Mach-Zehnder interferometer switch comprises of four p-i-n phase shifters and two mode-insensitive multimode interferences that can be used for TE and TE, simultaneously. With π/2 phase shifters introduced, push-pull like operation enables the power consumption lower than 2.15 mW. The average insertion loss of the switch in "cross" and "bar" states are 1.31 dB ± 0.19 dB for the TE mode and 3.39 dB ± 0.16 dB for the TE mode, respectively. The cross talk is less than -16.47 dB in the C band. The compact dual-mode switch is promising to conduct a large-scale, flexible MDM system on chip.