Inverse design of compact nonvolatile reconfigurable silicon photonic devices with phase-change materials
Wei Maoliang,
Lin Xiaobin,
Xu Kai,
Wu Yingchun,
Wang Chi,
Wang Zijia,
Lei Kunhao,
Bao Kangjian,
Li Junying,
Li Lan,
Li Erping,
Lin Hongtao
Affiliations
Wei Maoliang
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Lin Xiaobin
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Xu Kai
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Wu Yingchun
Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang310030, China
Wang Chi
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Wang Zijia
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Lei Kunhao
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Bao Kangjian
Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang310030, China
Li Junying
Hangzhou Institute for Advanced Study, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hangzhou310024, China
Li Lan
Key Laboratory of 3D Micro/Nano Fabrication and Characterization of Zhejiang Province, School of Engineering, Westlake University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang310030, China
Li Erping
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
Lin Hongtao
The State Key Lab of Brain-Machine Intelligence, Key Laboratory of Micro-Nano Electronics and Smart System of Zhejiang Province, College of Information Science and Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou310027, China
In the development of silicon photonics, the continued downsizing of photonic integrated circuits will further increase the integration density, which augments the functionality of photonic chips. Compared with the traditional design method, inverse design presents a novel approach for achieving compact photonic devices. However, achieving compact, reconfigurable photonic devices with the inverse design that employs the traditional modulation method exemplified by the thermo-optic effect poses a significant challenge due to the weak modulation capability. Low-loss phase change materials (PCMs) exemplified by Sb2Se3 are a promising candidate for solving this problem benefiting from their high refractive index contrast. In this work, we first developed a robust inverse design method to realize reconfigurable silicon and phase-change materials hybrid photonic devices including mode converter and optical switch. The mode converter exhibits a broadband operation of >100 nm. The optical switch shows an extinction ratio of >25 dB and a multilevel switching of 41 (>5 bits) by simply changing the crystallinity of Sb2Se3. Here, we experimentally demonstrated a Sb2Se3/Si hybrid integrated optical switch for the first time, wherein routing can be switched by the phase transition of the whole Sb2Se3. Our work provides an effective solution for the design of photonic devices that is insensitive to fabrication errors, thereby paving the way for high integration density in future photonic chips.
