Comparison of the phase change process in a GST-loaded silicon waveguide and MMI

In the past decades, silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have been considered a promising approach to solve bandwidth bottleneck in optical communications and interconnections. Despite rapid advances, large-scale PICs still face series of technical challenges, such as large footprint, high power consumption, lack memory, resulting from active tuning methods used control waves. These challenges can be partially addressed by combining chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs) Ge 2 Sb Te ­5 (GST) with photonics, especially applicable reconfigurable circuit applications due nonvolatile nature GST. We systematically investigate process induced electrical pulses GST-loaded waveguide multimode interferometer. Using pulse excitation amorphize GST has clear advantage terms operation speed energy efficiency, while is more suitable for integration because it does not require complex routing. This study helps us better understand push forward further development Si-GST hybrid platform, bringing new potential applications.