Fabrication-friendly all-optical plasmonically-enhanced integrated phase-change photonic memory device

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Materials Science
• Nanotechnology and Device Engineering

Background:

• Integrated photonic devices require faster and more energy-efficient memory and computing solutions.
• Plasmonic resonant structures offer nanoscale light-squeezing and electric-field enhancement.
• Chalcogenide phase-change materials provide intrinsic tuneability for device operation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the potential of combining plasmonic structures with phase-change materials for integrated photonic devices.
• To design manufacturable devices with improved performance characteristics.
• To investigate the switching energy and speed of these novel photonic memory and computing devices.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing finite-element thermo-optic computational models.
• Employing bespoke phase-change computational models.
• Designing devices with plasmonic dimer-bar nanoantennas on phase-change cells integrated with photonic waveguides.

Main Results:

• Achieved switching energies in the tens of pico-Joule range.
• Demonstrated switching speeds in the tens of nanosecond range.
• Showcased a favorable trade-off between device performance and fabrication complexity.

Conclusions:

• The integration of plasmonic structures and phase-change materials shows great promise for fast, energy-efficient photonic memory and computing.
• The proposed device designs are readily manufacturable and offer significant performance enhancements over conventional approaches.
• These findings pave the way for next-generation optical computing technologies.