Low-loss ultrafast and nonvolatile all-optical switch enabled by all-dielectric phase change materials

• DOI: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104375
• Publication Date: 2022-05-07T15:41:17Z
• Authors: Qiang He; Zhiyuan Liu; Yitao Lu; Guoxun Ban; Hao Tong; Yi Wang; Xiangshui Miao
• Keywords: Switching time; Nanosecond

All-optical switches show great potential to overcome the speed and power consumption limitations of electrical switching. Owing its nonvolatile superb cycle abilities, phase-change materials enabled all-optical switch (PC-AOS) is attracting much attention. However, realizing low-loss ultrafast switching remains a challenge, because previous PC-AOS are mostly based on plasmonic metamaterials. The high thermal conductance metallic disturbs accumulation for phase transition, eventually decreases tens nanoseconds. Here, we demonstrate an (4.5 ps) (2.8 dB) all-dielectric structure consisting Ge2Sb2Te5 photonic crystals. Its approximately ten thousand times faster than one. A 5.4 dB on-off ratio at 1550 nm has been experimentally achieved. We believe that proposed optical will accelerate progress energy-efficient devices systems.