All-Optical Phase-Change Memory with Improved Performance by Plasmonic Effect

Abstract

The combination of the integrated waveguide and phase-change materials (PCMs) provides a promising platform for reconfigurable and multifunctional photoelectric devices. Through plasmonic enhancement and the low loss propagation of the waveguide, the footprint and power consumption of the photoelectric device can be effectively improved. In this work, a metal double-ring structure embedded with phase change materials was proposed to utilize the plasmonic effect for enhancement of the light-matter interaction. In particular, the overall temperature difference in the PCM cell can be confined within 2 °C during the crystallization process, thus avoiding the interior heterogeneous crystallization. The insertion loss of the cell in amorphous and crystalline states at a wavelength of 1550 nm are 2.3 dB and 1.0 dB, respectively. A signal contrast ratio of 15.8% is achieved under the ultra-small footprint (50 × 90 nm2) at a wavelength of 1550 nm.