Phase-change materials (PCMs) offer a compelling platform for active metaoptics, owing to their large index contrast and fast yet stable phase transition attributes. Despite recent advances in phase-change metasurfaces, a fully integrable solution that combines pronounced tuning measures, i.e., efficiency, dynamic range, speed, and power consumption, is still elusive. Here, we demonstrate an in situ electrically driven tunable metasurface by harnessing the full potential of a PCM alloy, Ge2Sb2Te5(GST), to realize non-volatile, reversible, multilevel, fast, and remarkable optical modulation in the near-infrared spectral range. Such a reprogrammable platform presents a record eleven-fold change in the reflectance (absolute reflectance contrast reaching 80%), unprecedented quasi-continuous spectral tuning over 250 nm, and switching speed that can potentially reach a few kHz. Our scalable heterostructure architecture capitalizes on the integration of a robust resistive microheater decoupled from an optically smart metasurface enabling good modal overlap with an ultrathin layer of the largest index contrast PCM to sustain high scattering efficiency even after several reversible phase transitions. We further experimentally demonstrate an electrically reconfigurable phase-change gradient metasurface capable of steering an incident light beam into different diffraction orders. This work represents a critical advance towards the development of fully integrable dynamic metasurfaces and their potential for beamforming applications.
For active beam manipulation devices, such as those based on liquid crystals, phase-change materials, or electro-optic materials, measuring accumulated phase of the light passing through a layer of the material is imperative to understand the functionality of the overall device. In this work we discuss a way of measuring the phase accumulation through a switched layer of Ge2Sb2Te5, which is seeing rapid use as means to high speed dynamic reconfiguration of free space light. Utilizing an interferometer in the switching setup and modulating the phase of one arm, the intensity of a probe beam can be captured and phase data pulled from it. Simulations were used to discover the connection between the intensity modulations and the phase information. The technique was tested experimentally and it was found that within error, the measurement was robust and repeatable.
more » « less- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10369490
- Publisher / Repository:
- Optical Society of America
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Optical Materials Express
- Volume:
- 12
- Issue:
- 7
- ISSN:
- 2159-3930
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- Article No. 2899
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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