Design of high extinction ratio, low loss, and compact optical modulators and switches based on GST phase change material

In this paper, an electrically driven optical modulator and switch based on micro-ring resonators using the phase change material (PCM) of G e 2 S b 2 T e 5 (GST) is designed and their optical properties are investigated. The change in refractive index between two states in PCMs is orders of magnitude larger than conventional electro-optic and free-carrier dispersion effects. These extraordinary variations make PCMs excellent candidates for optical active devices such as modulators and switches. In our design, GST is used as the active material because it is far more stable and results in lower insertion loss compared to other PCMs such as vanadium dioxide ( V O 2 ) (at λ = 1.55 µ m , the imaginary part of the refractive index is 1.49 for GST and 2.53 for V O 2 is their metallic phases). By optimizing the GST dimensions, the device figure of merit is maximized. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations show a very high extinction ratio of 37.3 dB with a low insertion loss of 0.427 dB for the proposed modulator and high extinction ratios of 19 dB and 10 dB in off and on states and insertion losses of 1.52 dB and 2.02 dB in off and on states, respectively, of the proposed 1 × 2 switch.