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An inverted ridge 3D thermal optical (TO) switch of a graphene-coated polymer/silica hybrid waveguide is proposed. The side electrode structure is designed to reduce the mode loss induced by the graphene film and by heating the electrode. The graphene layer is designed to be located on the waveguide to assist in the conduction of heat produced by the electrode. The inverted ridge core is fabricated by etching and spin-coating processes, which can realize the flat surface waveguide. This core improves the transfer of the graphene layer and the compatibility of the fabrication processes. Because of the opposite thermal optical coefficient of polymer and silica and the high thermal conductivity of the graphene layer, the 3D hybrid TO switch with low power consumption and fast response time is obtained. Compared with the traditional TO switch without graphene film, the power consumption of the proposed TO switch is reduced by 41.43% at the wavelength of 1550 nm, width of the core layer (a) of 3 &mu, m, and electrode distance (d) of 4 &mu, m. The rise and fall times of the proposed TO switch are simulated to be 64.5 &mu, s and 175 &mu, s with a d of 4 &mu, m, and a of 2 &mu, m, respectively.

This article demonstrates a dispersed-monolayer graphene-doped polymer/silica hybrid Mach&ndash, Zehnder interferometer (MZI) thermal optical switch with low-power consumption and fast response. The polymer/silica hybrid MZI structure reduces the power consumption of the device as a result of the large thermal optical coefficient of the polymer material. To further decrease the response time of the thermal optical switch device, a polymethyl methacrylate, doped with monolayer graphene as a cladding material, has been synthesized. Our study theoretically analyzed the thermal conductivity of composites using the Lewis&ndash, Nielsen model. The predicted thermal conductivity of the composites increased by 133.16% at a graphene volume fraction of 0.263 vol %, due to the large thermal conductivity of graphene. Measurements taken of the fabricated thermal optical switch exhibited a power consumption of 7.68 mW, a rise time of 40 &mu, s, and a fall time of 80 &mu, s at a wavelength of 1550 nm.