A numerical Kramers-Kronig analysis is used to predict the refractive-index perturbations produced in crystalline silicon by applied electric fields or by charge carriers. Results are obtained over the1.0-2.0 \mum optical wavelength range. The analysis makes use of experimental electroabsorption spectra and impurity-doping spectra taken from the literature. For electrorefraction at the indirect gap, we find\Delta n = 1.3 \times 10^{5}at\lambda = 1.07 \mum whenE = 10^{5}V/cm, while the Kerr effect gives\Delta n = 10^{-6}at that field strength. The charge-carrier effects are larger, and a depletion or injection of 10¹⁸carriers/cm³produces an index change of\pm1.5 \times 10^{-3}at\lambda = 1.3 \mum.

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In this Letter, we propose a broadband, nonvolatile on-chip switch design in the telecommunication C-band with record low loss and crosstalk. The unprecedented device performance builds on: 1) a new optical phase change material (O-PCM) ${\mathrm{Ge}}_2{\mathrm{Sb}}_2{\mathrm{Se}}_4{\mathrm{Te}}_1$ (GSST), which exhibits significantly reduced optical attenuation compared to traditional O-PCMs, and 2) a nonperturbative design that enables low-loss device operation beyond the classical figure-of-merit (FOM) limit. We further demonstrate that the 1-by-2 and 2-by-2 switches can serve as basic building blocks to construct nonblocking and nonvolatile on-chip switching fabric supporting arbitrary numbers of input and output ports.