A comparison of phase change materials in reconfigurable silicon photonic directional couplers

TL;DR

This paper compares various phase change materials for reconfigurable silicon photonic directional couplers, highlighting Sb$_2$S$_3$ as the most efficient with multi-level tuning capabilities and low losses.

Contribution

It introduces a comprehensive comparison of PCM-based couplers, demonstrating Sb$_2$S$_3$'s superior performance and multi-level programmability in silicon photonics.

Findings

Sb$_2$S$_3$ has the lowest absorption in telecom wavelengths.

Sb$_2$S$_3$ couplers exhibit the lowest insertion losses.

A 2-bit tunable coupler with ~32 dB dynamic range was achieved.

Abstract

The unique optical properties of phase change materials (PCMs) can be exploited to develop efficient reconfigurable photonic devices. Here, we design, model, and compare the performance of programmable 1X2 optical couplers based on: Ge$_2$Sb$_2$Te$_5$, Ge$_2$Sb$_2$Se$_4$Te$_1$, Sb$_2$Se$_3$, and Sb$_2$S$_3$ PCMs. Once programmed, these devices are passive, which can reduce the overall energy consumed compared to thermo-optic or electro-optic reconfigurable devices. Of all the PCMs studied, our ellipsometry refractive index measurements show that Sb$_2$S$_3$ has the lowest absorption in the telecommunications wavelength band. Moreover, Sb$_2$S$_3$-based couplers show the best overall performance, with the lowest insertion losses in both the amorphous and crystalline states. We show that by growth crystallization tuning at least four different coupling ratios can be reliably programmed into the Sb$_2$S$_3$ directional couplers. We used this effect to design a 2-bit tuneable Sb$_2$S$_3$ directional coupler with a dynamic range close to 32 dB. The bit-depth of the coupler appears to be limited by the crystallization stochasticity.