Nonvolatile waveguide transmission tuning with electrically-driven ultra-small GST phase-change material

Hanyu Zhang,Linjie Zhou,Jian Xu,Ningning Wang,Hao Hu,Liangjun Lu,B.M.A Rahman,Jianping Chen

doi:10.1016/j.scib.2019.04.035

Hanyu Zhang, Linjie Zhou + Show 6 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scib.2019.04.035

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Abstract

Low-power reconfigurable optical circuits are highly demanded to satisfy a variety of different applications. Conventional electro-optic and thermo-optic refractive index tuning methods in silicon photonics are not suitable for reconfiguration of optical circuits due to their high static power consumption and volatility. We propose and demonstrate a nonvolatile tuning method by utilizing the reversible phase change property of GST integrated on top of the silicon waveguide. The phase change is enabled by applying electrical pulses to the μm-sized GST active region in a sandwich structure. The experimental results show that the optical transmission of the silicon waveguide can be tuned by controlling the phase state of GST.

Highlights

Photonic integration is a development trend for optical systems that are widely used in various optical interconnection and signal processing systems [1,2,3]
This leads to large static power consumption, especially for reconfigurable optical circuits, like optical circuit switches [7] and optical signal processors [8,9] when the optical paths are not frequently changed
The experimental setup used for device characterization is described in the Supplementary material

Summary

Introduction

Photonic integration is a development trend for optical systems that are widely used in various optical interconnection and signal processing systems [1,2,3]. Thermo-optic (TO) and electro-optic (EO) effects are routinely used for RI tuning, but they are both volatile and require a continuous power supply to maintain the states This leads to large static power consumption, especially for reconfigurable optical circuits, like optical circuit switches [7] and optical signal processors [8,9] when the optical paths are not frequently changed. Because of the stable phases, the tuned RI can be kept for a long time without power consumption This property makes it quite attractive for reconfigurable optical circuits. The phase change is induced by pump pulses from an in-plane waveguide This method improves the integration capability, suitable for all-optical signal processing. Using electrical signals to control the optical wave is highly demanded in electrically reconfigurable photonic circuits

Device design and simulation

Experimental results

Application in reconfigurable photonic circuits

Conclusions