Nonvolatile waveguide transmission tuning with electrically-driven ultra-small GST phase-change material

Abstract

Low-power reconfigurable optical circuits are highly demanded to satisfy a variety of different applications. Conventional electro-optic and thermo-optic refractive index tuning methods in silicon photonics are not suitable for reconfiguration of optical circuits due to their high static power consumption and volatility. We propose and demonstrate a nonvolatile tuning method by utilizing the reversible phase change property of GST integrated on top of the silicon waveguide. The phase change is enabled by applying electrical pulses to the μm-sized GST active region in a sandwich structure. The experimental results show that the optical transmission of the silicon waveguide can be tuned by controlling the phase state of GST.