Graphene Heaters for Tunable Mach–Zehnder Interferometers in Silicon Photonics at the C-Band Wavelength

Congratulations to Jens Samland and the entire team on our latest publication in ACS Applied Optical Materials!

🔍 This work explores graphene micro heaters for thermally tunable MZIs on a silicon-on-insulator platform—pushing the boundaries of C-band photonic switching.

📌 Key Results:

▪️Two heater designs with varying geometries
▪️Achieved Pπτ = 272 mW·μs and 28 dB extinction ratio
▪️High fabrication yield and strong agreement with simulations
▪️Potential for integration with advanced silicon logic chips

👏 This study highlights the promise of graphene heaters in nonvolatile photonic switches and electronic-photonic integration.

📄 Title: Graphene Heaters for Tunable Mach–Zehnder Interferometers in Silicon Photonics at the C-Band Wavelength

👥 Authors: Jens Samland, Bárbara Canto, Martin Otto, Holger Lerch,
Jens Bolten, Stephan Suckow, Thorsten Wahlbrink, Max Lemme

🔗 Read the full paper open access here.

Funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Forschung, Technologie und Raumfahrt) under the NeuroSys Cluster 4 Future project and under the QSPEC project.