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Ultra-low-energy programmable non-volatile silicon photonics based on phase-change materials with graphene heaters

Nature Nanotechnology volume 17, pages 842–848 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

Silicon photonics is evolving from laboratory research to real-world applications with the potential to transform many technologies, including optical neural networks and quantum information processing. A key element for these applications is a reconfigurable switch operating at ultra-low programming energy—a challenging proposition for traditional thermo-optic or free carrier switches. Recent advances in non-volatile programmable silicon photonics based on phase-change materials (PCMs) provide an attractive solution to energy-efficient photonic switches with zero static power, but the programming energy density remains high (hundreds of attojoules per cubic nanometre). Here we demonstrate a non-volatile electrically reconfigurable silicon photonic platform leveraging a monolayer graphene heater with high energy efficiency and endurance. In particular, we show a broadband switch based on the technologically mature PCM Ge2Sb2Te5 and a phase shifter employing the emerging low-loss PCM Sb2Se3. The graphene-assisted photonic switches exhibited an endurance of over 1,000 cycles and a programming energy density of 8.7 ± 1.4 aJ nm–3, that is, within an order of magnitude of the PCM thermodynamic switching energy limit (~1.2 aJ nm–3) and at least a 20-fold reduction in switching energy compared with the state of the art. Our work shows that graphene is a reliable and energy-efficient heater compatible with dielectric platforms, including Si3N4, for technologically relevant non-volatile programmable silicon photonics.

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Fig. 1: A graphene–PCM reconfigurable silicon photonic platform.
Fig. 2: Graphene-assisted broadband waveguide switch based on GST.
Fig. 3: Graphene-assisted phase shifter based on Sb2Se3 in a micro-ring.
Fig. 4: Quasi-continuous phase modulation using the graphene–Sb2Se3 phase shifter.

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Data availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF-1640986 and NSF-2003509), an ONR-YIP Award, a DARPA-YFA Award, the Draper Laboratory and Intel. Part of this work was conducted at the Washington Nanofabrication Facility/Molecular Analysis Facility, a National Nanotechnology Coordinated Infrastructure (NNCI) site at the University of Washington with partial support from the National Science Foundation (NNCI-1542101 and NNCI-2025489). We thank S. Moazeni for allowing us to use the high-speed photoreceiver at the University of Washington.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Zhuoran Fang, Rui Chen, Jiajiu Zheng, Abhi Saxena & Arka Majumdar

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Asir Intisar Khan, Kathryn M. Neilson, Michelle E. Chen & Eric Pop

  3. The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Sarah J. Geiger, Dennis M. Callahan & Michael G. Moebius

  4. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA

    Michelle E. Chen & Eric Pop

  5. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Carlos Rios

  6. Institute for Research in Electronics and Applied Physics, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Carlos Rios

  7. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Juejun Hu

  8. Department of Physics, University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Arka Majumdar

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  1. Zhuoran Fang
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Contributions

Z.F. and A.M. conceived the project. Z.F. simulated, designed and fabricated the devices. Z.F. led the switching experiments, optical characterizations and performed the data analysis. R.C. helped with the experiments and characterizations. J.Z. developed the initial fabrication process flow and design of the experiments. J.Z. and R.C. helped with the data analysis. A.I.K. and K.M.N. deposited the Sb2Se3 materials. A.S. illustrated the device schematics. M.E.C. advised on the SLG transfer process. C.R. and J.H. advised on the device design and fabrication process. E.P. facilitated the Sb2Se3 deposition and advised on the transfer of SLG. A.M., S.J.G., D.M.C. and M.G.M. supervised the overall progress of the project. Z.F. wrote the manuscript with input from all the authors.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Zhuoran Fang or Arka Majumdar.

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Competing interests

All authors are listed as co-inventors on a US patent provisional application (patent application number 63/365,135) on the ultra-low-energy phase shifter filed by the Charles Stark Draper Laboratory.

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Nature Nanotechnology thanks Otto Muskens and Linjie Zhou for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Fang, Z., Chen, R., Zheng, J. et al. Ultra-low-energy programmable non-volatile silicon photonics based on phase-change materials with graphene heaters. Nat. Nanotechnol. 17, 842–848 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-022-01153-w

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