Absorption intensity tunability in the near infrared region using phase-change nanostructure (Presentation Recording)

Nanostructured thin film absorbers embedded with phase-change material (PCM) can provide large level of absorption intensity tunability in the near-infrared region. Germanium Antimonide Tellurite (Ge2Sb1Te4-GST) was employed as the phase-change material in the designed structures. The structure is composed of a periodic grating-type array of 200 nm thick Au buried with 100 nm-thick GST layer from the top of the Au layer. The period of the gratings is 2 μm and in each period, GST width is 0.5 μm. GST was selected as the active PCM because its optical properties undergo a substantial change during a structural transition from the amorphous to the crystalline phase. The optical absorption properties of the designed structures with respect to the geometric and material parameters were systematically investigated using finite-difference time-domain computations. It was shown that absorption intensity in the near-infrared region was tuned from the near-perfect to the near-zero level by switching the PCM from its amorphous to crystalline states. The distributions of the electric field and absorbed power at the resonant wavelengths with respect to different phases of the GST were investigated to further explain the physical origin of the absorption tuning. This study provides a path toward the realization of tunable infrared absorbers for the applications, such as selective infrared emitters, infrared camouflage, sensors, and photovoltaic devices.