Design of a plasmonic switch using ultrathin chalcogenide Phase-Change material

A compact plasmonic switching scheme, based on the phase change of a thin-film chalcogenide material (Ge₂Sb₂Te₅), is proposed and numerically investigated at optical-communication wavelengths. Surface plasmon polariton modal analysis is conducted for various thicknesses of dielectric and phase-change material layers, and the optimized condition is induced by finding the region of interest that shows a high extinction ratio of surface plasmon polariton modes before and after the phase transition. Full electromagnetic simulations show that multiple reflections inside the active region may conditionally increase the overall efficiency of the on/off ratio at a specific length of the active region. However, it is shown that the optimized geometrical condition, which shows generally large on/off ratio for any length of active region, can be distinguished by observing the multiple-reflection characteristic inside the active region. The proposed scheme shows an on/off switching ratio greater than 30 dB for a length of a few micrometers, which can be potentially applied to integrated active plasmonic systems.