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Optically reconfigurable metasurfaces and photonic devices based on phase change materials

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 60–65 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Photonic components with adjustable parameters, such as variable-focal-length lenses or spectral filters, which can change functionality upon optical stimulation, could offer numerous useful applications. Tuning of such components is conventionally achieved by either micro- or nanomechanical actuation of their constituent parts, by stretching or by heating. Here, we report a novel approach for making reconfigurable optical components that are created with light in a non-volatile and reversible fashion. Such components are written, erased and rewritten as two-dimensional binary or greyscale patterns into a nanoscale film of phase-change material by inducing a refractive-index-changing phase transition with tailored trains of femtosecond pulses. We combine germanium–antimony–tellurium-based films with a diffraction-limited resolution optical writing process to demonstrate a variety of devices: visible-range reconfigurable bichromatic and multi-focus Fresnel zone plates, a super-oscillatory lens with subwavelength focus, a greyscale hologram, and a dielectric metamaterial with on-demand reflection and transmission resonances.

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Figure 1: Writing of reconfigurable photonic devices in a phase-change film (artistic impression).
Figure 2: Binary and greyscale devices optically written in the phase-change film.
Figure 3: Writing planar wavelength multiplexing focusing devices.
Figure 4: Dynamically optically reconfigurable zone-plate device.
Figure 5: Writing a dielectric metamaterial.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank A. Karvounis for assistance with computing the spectra of the dielectric metamaterial and D. Hewak for discussions. This study was supported by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council UK (grant no. EP/G060363/1), the Singapore Ministry of Education (grant no. MOE2011-T3–1-005) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) of Singapore (grants nos. 122-360-0007 and 122-360-0009) and the University of Southampton Enterprise Fund. Q. Wang acknowledges fellowship support from A*STAR.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Optoelectronics Research Centre and Centre for Photonic Metamaterials, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Qian Wang, Edward T. F. Rogers, Behrad Gholipour, Chih-Ming Wang & Nikolay I. Zheludev

  2. Institute of Materials Research and Engineering, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), 2 Fusionopolis Way, Innovis, Singapore, 138634, Singapore

    Qian Wang & Jinghua Teng

  3. Institute for Life Sciences, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, UK

    Edward T. F. Rogers

  4. Centre for Disruptive Photonic Technologies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, 637371, Singapore

    Behrad Gholipour, Guanghui Yuan & Nikolay I. Zheludev

Authors
  1. Qian Wang
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  4. Chih-Ming Wang
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  5. Guanghui Yuan
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  7. Nikolay I. Zheludev
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Contributions

N.I.Z. conceived the idea of optical reconfigurable photonics devices. Q.W. built the experimental set-up and carried out the experiments. Q.W. and E.T.F.R. designed the experimental apparatus and carried out data analysis. B.G. prepared the experimental samples. C.M.W. designed the hologram pattern. G.H.Y. designed the super-oscillatory lens and performed angular spectrum simulations. Q.W., N.I.Z. and J.H.T. co-wrote the paper. All authors discussed the results and edited the manuscript. N.I.Z. and J.H.T. supervised and coordinated all the work.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Qian Wang or Nikolay I. Zheludev.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Wang, Q., Rogers, E., Gholipour, B. et al. Optically reconfigurable metasurfaces and photonic devices based on phase change materials. Nature Photon 10, 60–65 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.247

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