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Inducing a large refractive-index change is the holy grail of reconfigurablephotonic structures, a goal that has long been the driving force behind thediscovery of new optical material platforms. Recently, the unprecedentedlylarge refractive-index contrast between the amorphous and crystalline states ofGe-Sb-Te (GST)-based phase-change materials (PCMs) has attracted tremendousattention for reconfigurable integrated nanophotonics. Here, we introduce amicroheater platform that employs optically transparent and electricallyconductive indium-tin-oxide (ITO) bridges for the fast and reversibleelectrical switching of the GST phase between crystalline and amorphous states.By the proper assignment of electrical pulses applied to the ITO microheater,we show that our platform allows for the registration of virtually anyintermediate crystalline state into the GST film integrated on the top of thedesigned microheaters. More importantly, we demonstrate the full reversibilityof the GST phase between amorphous and crystalline states. To show thefeasibility of using this hybrid GST/ITO platform for miniaturized integratednanophotonic structures, we integrate our designed microheaters into the armsof a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to realize electrically reconfigurable opticalphase shifters with orders of magnitude smaller footprints compared to existingintegrated photonic architectures. We show that the phase of optical signalscan be gradually shifted in multiple intermediate states using a structure thatcan potentially be smaller than a single wavelength. We believe that our studyshowcases the possibility of forming a whole new class of miniaturizedreconfigurable integrated nanophotonics using beyond-binary reconfiguration ofoptical functionalities in hybrid PCM-photonic devices.

optics express

ITO-Based Microheaters for Reversible Multi-Stage Switching of  Phase-Change Materials: Towards Miniaturized Beyond-Binary Reconfigurable  Integrated Photonics