Numerical Investigation of Reconfigurable Photonic Crystal Switch Based on Phase Change Nanomaterial

In this article, the novel reconfigurable all-optical switches are designed with ultracompact size, fast response time and high extinction ratio. The hybrid silicon (Si) and phase change material of Germanium-Antimony-Tellurides (GST) based nanoresonator coupled photonic crystal platform is used to realize the 1 × 1, 2 × 2, 3 × 3, and 4 × 4 switches. The GST-based nano-rods are playing a very significant role in “ON” and “OFF” states of the optical switch which can be triggered by changing the phase of the material. The introduction of GST rods within nanocavity provide high output power at the amorphous state and very low output power at the crystalline state, which in turn provide a very high extinction ratio. The designed nanoswitch is optimized through the Finite-Difference-Time-Domain (FDTD) method. The non-volatile 1 × 1 nanoswitch is designed with a low footprint of 44 μm
²
, the low delay time of 293.86 femtoseconds (fs) and high data rate of 3.40 Tbps. Hence, the reported switching platform is more appropriate for photonic interconnects and quantum computing.