Pixelated electrically driven Sb₂Se₃ phase-change metasurfaces

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Materials Science

Background:

• Antimony selenide (Sb₂Se₃) is a key phase-change material for reconfigurable photonics due to its transparency and reversible optical properties.
• Existing metasurface control methods are often offline, limiting real-time applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop an electrically driven platform for localized, rapid phase transitions in Sb₂Se₃ metasurfaces.
• To achieve precise optical modulation and enable advanced spectroscopic functionalities.

Main Methods:

• Monolithic integration of Sb₂Se₃ nanostructures with addressable microheaters for microsecond-timescale phase transitions.
• Fabrication of a 6 × 6 electrically addressable metasurface array.
• Integration with neural-network-assisted computational methods for spectral reconstruction.

Main Results:

• Achieved electrically controlled amplitude modulation over 80% and phase modulation near 2π.
• Demonstrated high-precision spectral reconstruction across a 500 nm short-wave infrared bandwidth.
• Enabled selective excitation of coupled resonant modes in the near-infrared spectrum.

Conclusions:

• The developed hybrid architecture provides a robust framework for electrically controlled reconfigurable photonics.
• This platform establishes a foundation for advanced computational spectroscopy and intelligent sensing.