Nonvolatile Electrically Reconfigurable Integrated Photonic Switch Enabled by a Silicon PIN Diode Heater. Issue 31 (26th June 2020)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Zheng, Jiajiu; Fang, Zhuoran; Wu, Changming; Zhu, Shifeng; Xu, Peipeng; Doylend, Jonathan K.; Deshmukh, Sanchit; Pop, Eric; Dunham, Scott; Li, Mo; Majumdar, Arka
• Is Part Of: Advanced materials. Volume 32:Issue 31(2020)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2020-06-26
• Subjects: integrated photonics -- nonvolatile photonic switches -- phase‐change materials -- reconfigurable photonics -- silicon photonics; Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.202001218
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0935-9648

Abstract

Abstract: Reconfigurability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has become increasingly important due to the growing demands for electronic–photonic systems on a chip driven by emerging applications, including neuromorphic computing, quantum information, and microwave photonics. Success in these fields usually requires highly scalable photonic switching units as essential building blocks. Current photonic switches, however, mainly rely on materials with weak, volatile thermo‐optic or electro‐optic modulation effects, resulting in large footprints and high energy consumption. As a promising alternative, chalcogenide phase‐change materials (PCMs) exhibit strong optical modulation in a static, self‐holding fashion, but the scalability of present PCM‐integrated photonic applications is still limited by the poor optical or electrical actuation approaches. Here, with phase transitions actuated by in situ silicon PIN diode heaters, scalable nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches using PCM‐clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated. As a result, intrinsically compact and energy‐efficient switching units operated with low driving voltages, near‐zero additional loss, and reversible switching with high endurance are obtained in a complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS)‐compatible process. This work can potentially enable very large‐scale CMOS‐integrated programmable electronic–photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general‐purpose integrated photonic processors. Abstract : Nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches based on phase‐change‐material‐clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated via in situ silicon PIN diode heaters. Low‐energy, compact, low‐loss, low‐voltage, and high‐cyclability operations at moderate speeds are obtained in a complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor‐compatible process, promising very large‐scale programmable electronic–photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general‐purpose integrated photonic processors.