All-dielectric phase-change reconfigurable metasurface

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates an all-dielectric metasurface that uses phase-change materials to achieve optical switching with high contrast ratios, enabling tunable optical properties at visible and near-infrared wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces a novel all-dielectric metasurface utilizing phase-change materials for non-volatile optical reconfiguration, which was not previously achieved with high contrast.

Findings

Achieved up to 5:1 reflectivity/transmission contrast ratio

Enabled spectral tuning via laser-induced phase transitions

Demonstrated optical switching at visible and near-infrared wavelengths

Abstract

We harness non-volatile, amorphous-crystalline transitions in the chalcogenide phase-change medium germanium antimony telluride (GST) to realize optically-switchable, all-dielectric metamaterials. Nanostructured, subwavelength-thickness films of GST present high-quality resonances that are spectrally shifted by laser-induced structural transitions, providing reflectivity and transmission switching contrast ratios of up to 5:1 (7 dB) at visible/near-infrared wavelengths selected by design.