Vanadium oxide metal-insulator phase transition in different types of one-dimensional photonic microcavities

TL;DR

This study explores how vanadium dioxide's metal-insulator transition affects the optical properties of various one-dimensional photonic microcavities, including ordered, aperiodic, and disordered structures, across 900-2000 nm wavelengths.

Contribution

It introduces and compares different layered photonic structures embedding VO2, highlighting how their configurations influence optical modulation during phase transition.

Findings

Ordered structures show distinct transmission valleys with defect modes.

Aperiodic and disordered structures exhibit multiple transmission valleys.

VO2 phase transition modulates optical properties across all structures.

Abstract

The optical properties of vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) can be tuned via metal-insulator transition. In this work different types of one-dimensional photonic structure-based microcavities that embed vanadium dioxide have been studied in the spectral range between 900 nm and 2000 nm. In particular, $VO_2$ has been sandwiched between: i) two photonic crystals made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$; ii) two aperiodic structures made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$ that follow the Thue-Morse sequence; iii) two disordered photonic structures, made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$ in which the disorder is introduced either by a random sequence of the two materials or by a random variation of the thicknesses of the layers; iv) two four material-based photonic crystals made of $SiO_2$, $Al_2O_3$, $Y_2O_3$, and $ZrO_2$. The ordered structures i and iv show, respectively, one and two intense transmission valleys with defect modes, while the aperiodic and disordered structures ii and iii show a manifold of transmission valleys due to their complex layered configurations. The metal-insulator transition of $VO_2$, controlled by temperature, results in a modulation of the optical properties of the microcavities.