Abstract
Phase change materials present a unique type of materials that drastically change their electrical and optical properties on the introduction of an external electrical or optical stimulus. Although these materials have been around for some decades, they have only recently been implemented for on-chip photonic applications. Since their reinvigoration a few years ago, on-chip devices based on phase change materials have been making a lot of progress, impacting many diverse applications at a very fast pace. At present, they are found in many interesting applications including switches and modulation; however, phase change materials are deemed most essential for next-generation low-power memory devices and neuromorphic computational platforms. This review seeks to highlight the progress thus far made in on-chip devices derived from phase change materials including memory devices, neuromorphic computing, switches, and modulators.
Highlights
Light–matter interaction leads the electric charges in the material to oscillate due to the incident light waves
This review presents different kinds of phase change materials and a limited discussion on the theory of phase change among different sorts of material
Metasurfaces that are artificially micro/nanostructured in a certain way to perform the function of modulators and switches are important Phase change materials (PCMs)-based integrated photonic devices
Summary
Light–matter interaction leads the electric charges in the material to oscillate due to the incident light (electromagnetic) waves. Phase change materials (PCMs) are a class of materials with interesting properties, which make them important for the development of various next-generation photonic devices. Their importance is due to phase change materials exhibiting at least two distinct phase states, between which the material can be reversibly switched. These phase states are due to stable and metastable atomic and crystal configurations, resulting in distinct electronic and optical properties [4], such as resistance and refractive index, respectively. We discuss different applications of phase change materials including phase change memories, in-memory and neuromorphic computing using PCM, and phase-change metasurfaces; lastly, we present the discussion and outlook
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