Title:  Dynamic Nanophotonic Structures Leveraging Chalcogenide Phase-change Materials

Committee: 

Dr. Adibi, Advisor

Dr. Cai, Chair

Dr. Chang

Abstract: The objective of the proposed research is the demonstration of adaptive photonic structures leveraging phase-change chalcogenides for active manipulation of optical wavefronts in the subwavelength regime. Accordingly, pure plasmonic, all-dielectric, and hybrid plasmonic-dielectric metasurfaces are realized to spectrally, spatially, and/or temporally control the main properties of light with a high dynamic range. First, I explore and characterize the material properties of a well-established phase-change chalcogenide (i.e., germanium antimony telluride (GST)) serving as a functional material in the mainstream of dynamic phase-change nanophotonics. By investigating the underlying nature of fundamental plasmonic/photonic modes supported by rationally engineered metasurfaces, I propose hybrid configurations enabling active tuning of the amplitude, phase, and polarization of light in a small form factor framework. I will investigate the realization of transparent micro/nanoheaters for active tuning of emerged high bandgap phase-change metasurfaces at the pixel level. The existing challenges will be discussed, and potential solutions will be proposed by introducing new architectures or advancing the available state-of-the-art methods.