2012/08/07 by Wolfram H. P. Pernice, Wolfram Pernice, Harish Bhaskaran · 181 citations
Computer Science · Engineering · Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Amorphous solid #Extinction ratio #Nanophotonics #Neural Networks and Reservoir Computing #Neuromorphic engineering #Optical switch #Phase-change materials and chalcogenides #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photonic crystal #Photonics #Refractive index #Resonator #Wavelength #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.1063/1.4758996
published in Applied Physics Letters 101(17) (American Institute of Physics)
arxiv created 2012/08/07 · openalex publication_date 2012/10/22 · arxiv updated 2015/06/11 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
We propose an all-photonic, non-volatile memory, and processing element based on phase-change thin-films deposited onto nanophotonic waveguides. Using photonic microring resonators partially covered with Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) multi-level memory operation in integrated photonic circuits can be achieved. GST provides a dramatic change in refractive index upon transition from the amorphous to crystalline state, which is exploited to reversibly control both the extinction ratio and resonance wavelength of the microcavity with an additional gating port in analogy to optical transistors. Our analysis shows excellent sensitivity to the degree of crystallization inside the GST, thus providing the basis for non-von Neumann neuromorphic computing.