Materials World Network: Understanding and exploiting mixed, ultra-fast optical electrical behavior in nanoscale phase change materials

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Wolfram Hans Peter Pernice
• Subject Area: Experimental Condensed Matter Physics
• Term: from 2012 to 2017
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 221510646

• Final Report Year: 2017

Final Report Abstract

Within the project several milestone achievements with regards to the integration of phase change materials in nanophotonic circuits where achieved. This concerns the development of a robust fabrication platform, which enables a wide range of functional devices to be realized using top down nanofabrication with traditional nanoprocessing methods. This way high yield and high reproducibility can be obtained, paired with a flexible layout and design approach. We were able to show that by placing phase change materials directly in the optical near field of a waveguide, all-optical operation is an effective method for inducing phase transitions on chip. This on the one hand removes the diffraction limit from the interaction volume and thus allows for realizing truly nanoscale structures. On the other hand it allows for exploiting the rich toolbox of nanophotonics for analyzing phase change materials in a chipscale framework. A breakthrough achievement was the demonstration of the first nonvolatile all-optical memory with multi-level storage, which interfaces directly with integrated optical systems. We further showed that such devices can be conveniently operated with picosecond optical pulses, allowing implementing optical switches on chip. In combination with electrical connection we then demonstrated the originally planned mixed-mode operation of optoelectronic elements and thus achieved our initially set project goals. Given the successful completion of the project goals we anticipate further avenues for continued research for hybrid phase change nanophotonic devices.

Publications

• “On-chip photonic memory elements employing phase change materials”, Advanced Materials 26, 1372 (2014)
  Rios, Carlos; Hosseini, Peiman; Wright, C. David; Bhaskaran, Harish & Pernice, Wolfram H. P.
  
• „Integrated all-photonic nonvolatile multi-level memory“, Nature Photonics 9, 725 (2015)
  Ríos, Carlos; Stegmaier, Matthias; Hosseini, Peiman; Wang, Di; Scherer, Torsten; Wright, C. David; Bhaskaran, Harish & Pernice, Wolfram H. P.
  
• Nanophotonic spatial light modulator, US Patent 9470955 B2, 18.10.2016
  W. Pernice, H. Bhaskaran
  
• “Mixed-Mode Operation of Hybrid Phase-Change Nanophotonic Circuits”, Nano Letters 17, 150 (2017)
  Lu, Yegang; Stegmaier, Matthias; Nukala, Pavan; Giambra, Marco A.; Ferrari, Simone; Busacca, Alessandro; Pernice, Wolfram H. P. & Agarwal, Ritesh
  
• “Nonvolatile ́All-Optical 1 × 2 Switch for Chipscale Photonic Networks”, Advanced Optical Materials 5, 1600346 (2017)
  Stegmaier, Matthias; Ríos, Carlos; Bhaskaran, Harish; Wright, C. David & Pernice, Wolfram H. P.
  
• “Thermo-optical Effect in Phase-Change Nanophotonics”, ACS Photonics 3, 828-835 (2016)
  Stegmaier, Matthias; Rı́os, Carlos; Bhaskaran, Harish & Pernice, Wolfram H. P.
  
• „Nichtflüchtiger optischer Speicher in photonischen Schaltkreisen“, Physik unserer Zeit 47, 9 (2016)
  Stegmaier, Matthias & Pernice, Wolfram H. P.