All-optical switches show great potential to overcome the speed and power consumption limitations of electrical switching. Owing to its nonvolatile and superb cycle abilities, phase-change materials enabled all-optical switch (PC-AOS) is attracting much attention. However, realizing low-loss and ultrafast switching remains a challenge, because previous PC-AOS are mostly based on plasmonic metamaterials. The high thermal conductance of metallic materials disturbs the thermal accumulation for phase transition, and eventually decreases the switching speed to tens of nanoseconds. Here, we demonstrate an ultrafast switching (4.5 ps) and low-loss (2.8 dB) all-optical switch based on all-dielectric structure consisting of GeSbTe and photonic crystals. Its switching speed is approximately ten thousand times faster than the plasmonic one. A 5.4 dB on-off ratio at 1550 nm has been experimentally achieved. We believe that the proposed all-dielectric optical switch will accelerate the progress of ultrafast and energy-efficient photonic devices and systems.
Download full-text PDF |
Source |
|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9126764 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2022.104375 | DOI Listing |
Publication Analysis
Top Keywords
Similar Publications
Strategies to enhance THz harmonic generation combining multilayered, gated, and metamaterial-based architectures.
Light Sci Appl
January 2025
Department of Physics, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6N5, Canada.
Graphene has unique properties paving the way for groundbreaking future applications. Its large optical nonlinearity and ease of integration in devices notably makes it an ideal candidate to become a key component for all-optical switching and frequency conversion applications. In the terahertz (THz) region, various approaches have been independently demonstrated to optimize the nonlinear effects in graphene, addressing a critical limitation arising from the atomically thin interaction length.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSub-picosecond biphasic ultrafast all-optical switching in ultraviolet band.
Nanophotonics
November 2024
College of Physical Science and Technology, State Key Laboratory of Physical Chemistry of Solid Surfaces, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China.
Ultrafast all-optical control has been a subject of wide-spread attention as a method of manipulating optical fields using light excitation on extremely short time scales. As a fundamental form of ultrafast all-optical control, all-optical switching has achieved sub-picosecond switch speeds in the visible, infrared, and terahertz spectral regions. However, due to the lack of suitable materials, ultrafast all-optical control in the ultraviolet range remains in its early stages.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFUltrafast optical properties and applications of anisotropic 2D materials.
Nanophotonics
January 2024
School of Electrical Engineering, Hanyang University, Ansan 15588, South Korea.
Two-dimensional (2D) layered materials exhibit strong light-matter interactions, remarkable excitonic effects, and ultrafast optical response, making them promising for high-speed on-chip nanophotonics. Recently, significant attention has been directed towards anisotropic 2D materials (A2DMs) with low in-plane crystal symmetry. These materials present unique optical properties dependent on polarization and direction, offering additional degrees of freedom absent in conventional isotropic 2D materials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMelting-free integrated photonic memory with layered polymorphs.
Nanophotonics
May 2024
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Delaware, Newark, DE 19716, USA.
Chalcogenide-based nonvolatile phase change materials (PCMs) have a long history of usage, from bulk disk memory to all-optic neuromorphic computing circuits. Being able to perform uniform phase transitions over a subwavelength scale makes PCMs particularly suitable for photonic applications. For switching between nonvolatile states, the conventional chalcogenide phase change materials are brought to a melting temperature to break the covalent bonds.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFElectrically-switched differential microscopy based on computing liquid-crystal platforms.
Nanophotonics
February 2024
Key Laboratory of Micro-/Nano-Optoelectronic Devices of Ministry of Education and Hunan Provincial Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Structural Physics and Devices, School of Physics and Electronics, Hunan University, Changsha 410082, China.
Detection of transparent phase specimens especially biological cells with desired contrasts is of great importance in visual display and medical diagnosis. Due to the pure-phase nature, conventional detection approaches may damage samples or require complex operations. Computing liquid crystal (LC) is a thin and flat optical element with excellent capability in optical field modulation, which gives a feasible way to this issue from the perspective of analog optical computing.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWant AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?
Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!