Congrats Chris! Best Poster Presentation Award in the SPIE Active Photonic Platforms conference at SPIE Optics and Photonics
Heterogenous integration of VO₂ nanopatches on subwavelength-engineered antislot photonic crystal for optical switching
We report the heterogeneous integration of the optical phase change material, vanadium dioxide (VO₂), on a subwavelength-engineered silicon antislot photonic crystal cavity as the foundation for a high extinction ratio, ultrafast optical switch. Two 50 × 250 nm patches of VO₂ are integrated atop silicon antislots of similar dimensions using second layer aligned lithography. Simulations demonstrate the tradeoffs between the resonance shift magnitude and quality factor as a function of the position of the VO2 patches within the cavity, leading to large differences in achievable extinction ratio as a function of VO2 position. Temperature-dependent experimental transmission measurements validate the expected extinction ratio of the device. An enhanced simulation model that accounts for fabrication imperfections without significantly increasing simulation time is also reported.