Pulsed-Pump Laser-Induced Transition in Chalcogenide GST for Hybrid Plasmonic Modulator Application

In this study, a novel hybrid plasmonic modulator based on chalcogenide GST is analyzed theoretically and numerically. The hybrid modulator is composed of GST/Au/GST layers, which is located at SOI platform. Such a hybrid plasmonic structure provides strong light confinement in a few micrometers coupling length. To stimulate and phase change in the GST, the pulsed-pump laser is applied. Full-vectorial finite-element approach is used to validate the theoretical performance of the proposed structure. Numerical simulations show the minimum insertion loss 0.24 dB with a corresponding extinction ratio 19.6 dB in a 3-µm coupling length is achieved at 1.55 µm wavelength. Also, the calculations of the power confinement factor justified the numerical behaviors of the proposed hybrid modulator. The proposed modulator provides capability in communication application, owing to high optical performance with ultra-compact dimensions.