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Electrically Tunable Fabry-Perot Cavities with Metal-Insulator Transitions in VO2

Technology Benefits

Increased switching energy efficiency compared to other published devicesPotentially improved detectivityIndependent tuning of the reflection amplitude and phase

Technology Application

Reconfigurable metasurfaces and nanophotonic devices Passive cooling and thermal regulation Memory devices

Detailed Technology Description

Researchers at the University of California, Santa Barbara developed a hybrid semiconductor-VO2 device that exhibits large, broadband, and continuous tuning of reflection, transmission, and absorption resonances across the infrared spectrum. The device consists of an undoped semiconductor thin-film, thick enough to support Fabry-Perot optical resonances in the infrared spectrum, on a VO2 thin-film. The electrically contacted, semiconductor layer, which simultaneously acts as a local heating element, causes the underlying VO2 thin-film to undergo a phase transition. Across this transition, which occurs at kHz rates, there are large changes in optical behavior. The integration of this device with commercial VOx detectors can potentially enable the development of wavelength-selective detectors with improved detectivity. Hybrid devices also exhibit strong transmission and absorption modulation and the ability to independently modulate reflection amplitude and phase. This development expands the potential of engineering new nanophotonic devices and active metasurfaces that take advantage of the reconfigurable properties of hybrid semiconductor-VO2 architectures.

Others

Background

The majority of commercial room-temperature thermal imaging systems currently rely on vanadium oxide (VO_x) thin-films. When grown in a precise stoichiometry, as vanadium dioxide (VO₂), the film undergoes a pronounced metal-insulator phase transition upon heating, across which there are massive changes in the electronic and optical properties. As a result, there has been an increase in recent research regarding VO₂’s applications in the design of reconfigurable electronic, thermal and optical systems. Recent advances have been made in reducing switching energy requirements and improving optical memory behavior. Several novel behaviors of hybrid semiconductor-VO₂ structures will be useful in the development of reconfigurable nanophotonic phased arrays (also referred to as metasurfaces), including: modulation of the reflection amplitude and phase, transmission, and absorption.

Tech ID/UC Case

29550/2018-611-0

Related Cases

2018-611-0

*Abstract

A hybrid semiconductor-VO₂ device that exhibits large, broadband, and continuous tuning of reflection, transmission, and absorption resonances across the infrared spectrum.

*Principal Investigator

Name: Nikita Butakov

Department:

Name: Prasad Iyer

Department:

Name: Tomer Lewi

Department:

Name: Ivan Schuller

Department:

Name: Jon Schuller

Department:

Country/Region

USA