Hybrid polymer/silica vertical coupler switch with <-32 dB polarisation-independent crosstalk

A modified hybrid polymer/silica 1 × 2 vertical coupler switch (VCS) with a polymer gap layer and a refractive index contrast of 0.008 has been designed, fabricated and characterised. The VCS exhibits low loss, low crosstalk, low switching power, and polarisation insensitivity. Using the 1 × 2 VCS as a building block, a 1 × 8 VCS matrix has been implemented.