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Register a new userElectrically driven programmable phase-change meta-switch reaching 80% efficiency
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Added by
Sajjad Abdollahramezani
Publication date
2021
fields
Physics
and research's language is
English
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Despite recent advances in active metaoptics, wide dynamic range combined with high-speed reconfigurable solutions is still elusive. Phase-change materials (PCMs) offer a compelling platform for metasurface optical elements, owing to the large index contrast and fast yet stable phase transition properties. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an in situ electrically-driven reprogrammable metasurface by harnessing the unique properties of a phase-change chalcogenide alloy, Ge$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$Te$_{5}$ (GST), in order to realize fast, non-volatile, reversible, multilevel, and pronounced optical modulation in the near-infrared spectral range. Co-optimized through a multiphysics analysis, we integrate an efficient heterostructure resistive microheater that indirectly heats and transforms the embedded GST film without compromising the optical performance of the metasurface even after several reversible phase transitions. A hybrid plasmonic-PCM meta-switch with a record electrical modulation of the reflectance over eleven-fold (an absolute reflectance contrast reaching 80%), unprecedented quasi-continuous spectral tuning over 250 nm, and switching speed that can potentially reach a few kHz is presented. Our work represents a significant step towards the development of fully integrable dynamic metasurfaces and their potential for beamforming applications.
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Structural colors generated due to light scattering from static all-dielectric metasurfaces have successfully enabled high-resolution, high-saturation and wide-gamut color printing applications. Despite recent advances, most demonstrations of these structure-dependent colors lack post-fabrication tunability that hinders their applicability for front-end dynamic display technologies. Phase-change materials (PCMs), with significant contrast of their optical properties between their amorphous and crystalline states, have demonstrated promising potentials in reconfigurable nanophotonics. Herein, we leverage a tunable all-dielectric reflective metasurface made of a newly emerged class of low-loss optical PCMs with superb characteristics, i.e., antimony trisulphide (Sb$_2$S$_3$), antimony triselenide (Sb$_2$Se$_3$), and binary germanium-doped selenide (GeSe$_3$), to realize switchable, high-saturation, high-efficiency and high-resolution structural colors. Having polarization sensitive building blocks, the presented metasurface can generate two different colors when illuminated by two orthogonally polarized incident beams. Such degrees of freedom (i.e., structural state and polarization) enable a single reconfigurable metasurface with fixed geometrical parameters to generate four distinct wide-gamut colors suitable for a wide range of applications, including tunable full-color printing and displays, information encryption, and anti-counterfeiting.
Optical metasurfaces have shown to be a powerful approach to planar optical elements, enabling an unprecedented control over light phase and amplitude. At that stage, where wide variety of static functionalities have been accomplished, most efforts are being directed towards achieving reconfigurable optical elements. Here, we present our approach to an electrically controlled varifocal metalens operating in the visible frequency range. It relies on dynamically controlling the refractive index environment of a silicon metalens by means of an electric resistor embedded into a thermo-optical polymer. We demonstrate precise and continuous tuneability of the focal length and achieve focal length variation larger than the Rayleigh length for voltage as small as 12 volts. The system time-response is of the order of 100 ms, with the potential to be reduced with further integration. Finally, the imaging capability of our varifocal metalens is successfully validated in an optical microscopy setting. Compared to conventional bulky reconfigurable lenses, the presented technology is a lightweight and compact solution, offering new opportunities for miniaturized smart imaging devices.
Superconducting cavity electro-optics (EO) presents a promising route to coherently convert microwave and optical photons and distribute quantum entanglement between superconducting circuits over long-distance through an optical network. High EO conversion efficiency demands transduction materials with strong Pockels effect and excellent optical transparency. Thin-film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) offers these desired characteristics however so far has only delivered unidirectional conversion with efficiencies on the order of $10^{-5}$, largely impacted by its prominent photorefractive (PR) effect at cryogenic temperatures. Here we show that, by mitigating the PR effect and associated charge-screening effect, the devices conversion efficiency can be enhanced by orders of magnitude while maintaining stable cryogenic operation, thus allowing a demonstration of conversion bidirectionality and accurate quantification of on-chip efficiency. With the optimized monolithic integrated superconducting EO device based on TFLN-on-sapphire substrate, an on-chip conversion efficiency of 1.02% (internal efficiency, 15.2%) is realized. Our demonstration indicates that with further device improvement, it is feasible for TFLN to approach unitary internal conversion efficiency.
Phase-change materials (PCMs) can switch between different crystalline states as a function of an external bias, offering a pronounced change of their dielectric function. In order to take full advantage of these features for active photonics and information storage, stand-alone PCMs are not sufficient, since the phase transition requires strong pump fields. Here, we explore hybrid metal-semiconductor core-shell nanoantennas loaded with PCMs, enabling a drastic switch in scattering features as the load changes its phase. Large scattering, beyond the limits of small resonant particles, is achieved by spectrally matching different Mie resonances, while scattering cancellation and cloaking is achieved with out-of-phase electric dipole oscillations in the PCM shell and Ag core. We show that tuning the PCM crystallinity we can largely vary total (~15 times) and forward (~100 times) scattering. Remarkably, a substantial reconfiguration of the scattering pattern from Kerker (zero backward) to antiKerker (almost zero forward) regimes with little change (~5%) in crystallinity is predicted, which makes this structure promising low-intensity nonlinear photonics.
Since the invention of the laser, adoption of new gain media and device architectures has provided solutions to a variety of applications requiring specific power, size, spectral, spatial, and temporal tunability. Here we introduce a fundamentally new type of tunable semiconductor laser based on a phase-change perovskite metasurface that acts simultaneously as gain medium and optical cavity. As a proof of principle demonstration, we fabricate a subwavelength-thin perovskite metasurface supporting bound states in the continuum (BICs). Upon the perovskite structural phase transitions, both its refractive index and gain vary substantially, inducing fast (1.35 nm/K rate) and broad spectral tunability (>15 nm in the near-infrared), deterministic spatial mode hopping between polarization vortexes, and hysteretic optical bistability of the microlaser. These features highlight the uniqueness of phase-change perovskite tunable lasers, which may find wide applications in compact and low-cost optical multiplexers, sensors, memories, and LIDARs.
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