On-Chip Reconfigurable Focusing through Low-Loss Phase Change Materials Based Metasurfaces

Metasurfaces are useful subwavelength structures that can be engineered to achieve useful functionality. While most metasurfaces are passive devices, Phase Change Materials can be utilized to make active metasurfaces that can have numerous applications. One such application is on-chip beam steering which is of vital utility for numerous applications that can potentially lead to analog computations and non-Von Neumann computational architectures. This paper presents through numerical simulations, a novel metasurface that can realize beam steering through active phase switching of in-planted arrays of phase change material, Sb2S3. For the purpose of numerical demonstration of the principle, beam focusing has been realized, on-chip, through active switching of the Sb2S3 unit cell between the amorphous and crystalline phases. The presented architecture can realize on-chip transformation optics, mathematical operations, and information processing, thus opening the gates for future technologies.

Automated summary

This paper presents a novel metasurface structure that utilizes phase change materials for active functionality. Through numerical simulations, the paper demonstrates the principle of beam steering by actively switching the phase of the implanted phase change material. The proposed architecture can enable on-chip transformation optics, mathematical operations, and information processing.