Rewritable Photonic Integrated Circuits Using Dielectric-assisted Phase-change Material Waveguides

TL;DR

This paper introduces a rewritable photonic integrated circuit platform using dielectric-assisted phase-change materials, enabling rapid, non-destructive rewriting of optical circuits with minimal loss for versatile applications.

Contribution

The authors propose a novel dielectric-assisted PCM waveguide design that allows rewritable PICs via laser writing and erasing, facilitating rapid prototyping and reconfigurability.

Findings

Low optical loss in PCM waveguides

Successful laser writing and erasing of circuits

Potential for low-cost, rapid PIC manufacturing

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have the potential to drastically expand the capabilities of optical communications, sensing, and quantum information science and engineering. However, PICs are commonly fabricated using selective material etching, a subtractive process. Thus, the chip's functionality cannot be substantially altered once fabricated. Here, we propose to exploit wide-bandgap non-volatile phase-change materials (PCMs) to create a rewritable PIC platform. A PCM-based PIC can be written using a nano-second pulsed laser without removing any material, akin to rewritable compact disks. The whole circuit can then be erased by heating, and a completely new circuit can be rewritten. We designed a dielectric-assisted PCM waveguide consisting of a thick dielectric layer on top of a thin layer of wide-bandgap PCMs Sb2S3 and Sb2Se3. The low-loss PCMs and our engineered waveguiding structure lead to a negligible optical loss. Furthermore, we analyzed and specified the spatio-temporal laser pulse shape to write the PCMs. Our proposed platform will enable low-cost manufacturing and have a far-reaching impact on the rapid prototyping of PICs, validation of new designs, and photonic education.