Dresden 2020 – scientific programme

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CPP: Fachverband Chemische Physik und Polymerphysik

CPP 81: Plasmonics and Nanooptics V: Tunable Structures and Nanoparticles (joint session O/CPP)

CPP 81.1: Talk

Wednesday, March 18, 2020, 15:30–15:45, WIL A317

Thermally regulated smart mid-infrared modulators enabled by phase-change materials and phase-transition materials — Xinrui Lyu¹, Andreas Heßler¹, Xiao Wang², Alfred Ludwig², Matthias Wuttig¹, and •Thomas Taubner¹ — ¹Institute of Physics (IA), RWTH Aachen University — ²Institute for Materials, Ruhr-University Bochum

Phase-change materials (PCMs) and phase-transition materials (PTMs) both show a large contrast in their optical properties upon switching, enabling compact optical components with diverse functionalities like sensing, thermal imaging and data recording. However, their switching properties differ significantly, i.e., non-volatile for PCMs while volatile for PTMs. For the first time, we combined PCMs, Ge₃Sb₂Te₃ (GST) or In₃Sb₁Te₂ (IST), with the PTM VO₂ as active layers in the design of the smart mid-infrared modulators with switchable absorption, reflection, and transmission. The VO₂ is employed as a dynamic mirror, switching between transmission (semiconducting VO₂) and absorption modes (metallic VO₂) with continuously tuned amplitudes up to 90%. Meanwhile, the PCMs on top of the VO₂ are used either for continuously shifting the absorption peak (up to 1.8 µm) by switching GST or for switching between reflection (R=0.85) and absorption modes (A=0.99) by switching IST. Merging the concepts of static (PCMs) and dynamic (PTMs) thermal modulation, the presented combination of non-volatile PCMs and volatile PTMs empowers new generation optical components like dynamic thermal imaging and optical switches.