Related papers: Femtosecond photo-induced displacive phase transit…
Optical phase change materials (O-PCMs), a unique group of materials featuring drastic optical property contrast upon solid-state phase transition, have found widespread adoption in photonic switches and routers, reconfigurable meta-optics,…
Chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) are widely applied in electronic and photonic applications, such as non-volatile memory and neuro-inspired computing. Doped Sb$_2$Te alloys are now gaining increasing attention for on-chip photonic…
Phase change materials (PCMs) are well-known for their reversible and rapid switching between crystalline and amorphous phases through thermal excitations mediated by strong electrical or laser pulses. This crystal-to-amorphous transition…
Phase-change materials based on Ge-Sb-Te alloys are widely used in industrial applications such as nonvolatile memories, but reaction pathways for crystalline-to-amorphous phase-change on picosecond timescales remain unknown. Femtosecond…
The unique optical properties of phase change materials (PCMs) can be exploited to develop efficient reconfigurable photonic devices. Here, we design, model, and compare the performance of programmable 1X2 optical couplers based on:…
Phase-change materials (PCMs) can switch between different crystalline states as a function of an external bias, offering a pronounced change of their dielectric function. In order to take full advantage of these features for active…
Multi-component chalcogenides, such as quasi-binary GeTe-Sb$_{2}$Te$_{3}$ alloys, are widely used in optical data storage media in the form of rewritable optical discs. Ge$_{2}$Sb$_{2}$Te$_{5}$ (GST) in particular has proven to be one of…
Revealing the bonding and time-evolving atomic dynamics in functional materials with complex lattice structures can update the fundamental knowledge on rich physics therein, and also help to manipulate the material properties as desired. As…
Recent development of ultrashort laser pulses allows for optical control of structural and electronic properties of complex quantum materials. The layered transition metal dichalcogenide MoTe2, which can crystalize into several different…
Phase-change materials (PCMs) such as Ge-Sb-Te alloys are widely used in non-volatile memory applications due to their rapid and reversible switching between amorphous and crystalline states. However, their functional properties are…
The optical properties of phase-change materials (PCM) can be tuned to multiple levels by controlling the transition between their amorphous and crystalline phases. In multi-material PCM structures, the number of discrete reflectance levels…
Phase change materials (PCMs) have long been used as a storage medium in rewritable compact disk and later in random access memory. In recent years, the integration of PCMs with nanophotonic structures has introduced a new paradigm for…
Bulk PbSnSe has a two-phase region or miscibility gap as the crystal changes from a Van der Waals-bonded orthorhombic 2D layered structure in SnSe-rich compositions to the related 3D-bonded rocksalt structure in PbSe-rich compositions with…
The switchable optical and electrical properties of phase change materials (PCMs) are finding new applications beyond data storage in reconfigurable photonic devices. However, high power heat pulses are needed to melt-quench the material…
Fast and reversible phase transitions in chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs), in particular, Ge-Sb-Te compounds, are not only of fundamental interests, but also make PCMs based random access memory (PRAM) a leading candidate for…
Many fundamental processes of structural changes at surfaces occur on a pico- or femtosecond time scale. In order to study such ultra-fast processes, we have combined modern surface science techniques with fs-laser pulses in a pump-probe…
We examine the ultrafast optical response of the crystalline and amorphous phases of the phase change material Ge$_2$Sb$_2$Te$_5$ below the phase transformation threshold. Simultaneous measurement of the transmissivity and reflectivity of…
Photonic computing using chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) is under active development for energy-efficient artificial intelligence (AI) applications. A key requirement is to enable as many optically programmable levels per device…
Phase change materials (PCMs) have gained a tremendous interest as a means to actively tune nanophotonic devices through the large optical modulation produced by their amorphous to crystalline reversible transition. Recently, materials such…
Photonic topological insulators (PTIs) offer robust platforms for light manipulation, but reconfigurable control of their topological properties without degrading performance remains a major challenge. While phase-change materials (PCMs)…