Refractive uses of layered and two-dimensional materials for integrated photonics

TL;DR

This paper reviews the potential of layered and two-dimensional materials in integrated photonics, emphasizing their tunable optical properties, phase-change capabilities, and suitability for refractive applications in photonic circuits.

Contribution

It highlights the refractive uses of layered 2D materials in integrated photonics, focusing on their tunability, phase-change features, and non-absorptive applications in the NIR spectrum.

Findings

Layered materials enable strong light-matter interaction in photonic circuits.

Tunable optical properties facilitate customizable photonic device functionalities.

Phase-change properties of these materials offer dynamic control in integrated photonics.

Abstract

The scientific community has witnessed tremendous expansion of research on layered (i.e. two-dimensional, 2D) materials, with increasing recent focus on applications to photonics. Layered materials are particularly exciting for manipulating light in the confined geometry of photonic integrated circuits, where key material properties include strong and controllable light-matter interaction, and limited optical loss. Layered materials feature tunable optical properties, phases that are promising for electro-optics, and a panoply of polymorphs that suggest a rich design space for highly-nonperturbative photonic integrated devices based on phase-change functionality. All of these features are manifest in materials with band gap above the photonics-relevant near-infrared (NIR) spectral band ($\sim$ 0.5 - 1 eV), meaning that they can be harnessed in refractive (i.e. non-absorptive) applications.