Periodic Reporting for period 1 - PHEMTRONICS (Active Optical Phase-Change Plasmonic Transdimensional Systems Enabling Femtojoule and Femtosecond Extreme Broadband Adaptive Reconfigurable Devices)
Periodo di rendicontazione: 2020-06-01 al 2021-05-31
There is currently a real societal need for ultrafast, low-energy consumption information processing. With the internet and mobile communication being the most crucial part of the modern economy, the number of service providers and users increased rapidly over the time. In such scenario, the traditional switching methods, which were very slow and consumed high amounts of energy, pose challenges in handling optical networks, leading to the innovation of “all optical switches”, to be used as building blocks in reconfigurable antennas and photonic integrated circuits with novel functionalities.
PHEMTRONICS has the ambitious vision of creating a unique path for translating forefront knowledge in “light controllable active phase-change materials with reconfigurable and interactively tunable dynamical properties” into extreme “broadband reconfigurable and adaptive devices”, enabling a new technology paradigm of adaptive optical signal processing with key metrics of the “femtosecond-scale switching time”, “ultralow power of femtojoule/bit” and “microwave-to-optical frequencies”.
Therefore, PHEMTRONICS aims at developing novel transdimensional phase-change plasmonic materials capable of self-reconfiguring and self-adapting as a response to light in order to design and fabricate a novel class of:
• reconfigurable photonic systems;
• ultrafast and low-power switches;
• adaptive antennas;
• adaptive switchable multiple-band photodetectors;
• all-optical spiking neuron circuit, with integrated all-optical synapses, capable of the prototypical artificial intelligence.
In this direction, PHEMTRONICS is introducing breakthroughs of:
• a novel transdimensional photo-switchable phase-change chalcogenides materials platform;
• a smart combination of plasmonic phase change materials to be used as optical trigger for the materials phase transformation;
• a new way of optical signal processing by self-reconfigurable switching in the femtosecond time scale with < 500 fJ/pulse.
PHEMTRONICS has the ambitious vision of creating a unique path for translating forefront knowledge in “light controllable active phase-change materials with reconfigurable and interactively tunable dynamical properties” into extreme “broadband reconfigurable and adaptive devices”, enabling a new technology paradigm of adaptive optical signal processing with key metrics of the “femtosecond-scale switching time”, “ultralow power of femtojoule/bit” and “microwave-to-optical frequencies”.
Therefore, PHEMTRONICS aims at developing novel transdimensional phase-change plasmonic materials capable of self-reconfiguring and self-adapting as a response to light in order to design and fabricate a novel class of:
• reconfigurable photonic systems;
• ultrafast and low-power switches;
• adaptive antennas;
• adaptive switchable multiple-band photodetectors;
• all-optical spiking neuron circuit, with integrated all-optical synapses, capable of the prototypical artificial intelligence.
In this direction, PHEMTRONICS is introducing breakthroughs of:
• a novel transdimensional photo-switchable phase-change chalcogenides materials platform;
• a smart combination of plasmonic phase change materials to be used as optical trigger for the materials phase transformation;
• a new way of optical signal processing by self-reconfigurable switching in the femtosecond time scale with < 500 fJ/pulse.
During the first reporting period, the following main results have been achieved:
As for the “Plasmonic Phase Change Materials & Processes Development”:
o Development of processes of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and low-cost chemical bath deposition (CBD) of layered phase-change gallium sulfide, GaS, and antimony sulfide, Sb2S3. The amorphous-to-crystalline phase change of GaS and Sb2S3 has been achieved both by thermal annealing and by green laser irradiation.
o Development of a CVD process on 1” sapphire and 4” silicon substrates for the deposition of few layers of molybdenum sulfide, MoS2, to exploit the order-to-order 2H-> 1T phase change.
o Development of a sputtering process for the deposition of molybdenum oxides, MoO2 and MoO3, and of thermal methodologies to have the amorphous-to-crystalline transition of those oxides, as well as the semiconducting-to-metal transition and viceversa in MoO3/MoO2.
As for the “Fabrication of plasmonic component and plasmonic actuation management”:
o Several configurations of plasmonic dimer nanoantennas based on gold and gallium, coupled to the GaS phase change material, have been designed and fabricated.
o The dielectric functions of the phase-change materials GaS, Sb2S3, MoO2 and MoO3 in the bulk, monolayer, amorphous and crystalline phases have been established, by measuring them experimentally by spectroscopic ellipsometry and validating them through DFT calculations. An optical database is being created for phase-change materials.
o An approach and code have been developed to predict the thickness at the monolayer level, of Ga-Chalcogenides materials (GaS, GaSe, GaTe) on various substrates. Universal “color rulers” useful to the 2D materials communities have been established and are available on the PHEMTRONICS website. The code to extend this universal approach to other materials on any substrate has been developed and made available by uploading it on open sources of Zenodo, Openaire with DOI: 10.5281.zenodo.5116286 at https://zenodo.org/record/5116286.
As for the “Phase-Change Management”, we have developed a Hamiltonian for a macroscopic-microscopic description/prediction of phase-transitions. The role of the phonons during phase-transitions can be described by this Hamiltonian and we are able to calculate/predict phase-transitions triggered by lasers.
As for the “Device Design”:
o we have layout the first design of nanophotonic modulator on-chip based on pioneer-investigated phase-change material cell transition GaSam↔ GaScr and order-to-order transition crystalline transformation GaSlayered↔ GaSwurtzite. Amplitude and Phase modulators have been considered.
o We have also designed a nanophotonic switch/modulator on-chip with plasmonically-enhanced GaS cell integrated atop Si3N4 nanophotonic device based on the transition GaSam↔ GaScr.
o The design of a plasmonically enhanced broadband photodetector based on the amorphous-crystalline transition of Sb2S3 has been achieved.
o The concept and design of a dynamic display based on MoO2/MoO3 transitions has been demonstrated.
The dissemination activities are well on-going, with public communications through the website (www.phemtronics.eu) social media (LinkedIn and TWITTER accounts), and several conferences/publications/posters/newsletters.
As for the “Plasmonic Phase Change Materials & Processes Development”:
o Development of processes of chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and low-cost chemical bath deposition (CBD) of layered phase-change gallium sulfide, GaS, and antimony sulfide, Sb2S3. The amorphous-to-crystalline phase change of GaS and Sb2S3 has been achieved both by thermal annealing and by green laser irradiation.
o Development of a CVD process on 1” sapphire and 4” silicon substrates for the deposition of few layers of molybdenum sulfide, MoS2, to exploit the order-to-order 2H-> 1T phase change.
o Development of a sputtering process for the deposition of molybdenum oxides, MoO2 and MoO3, and of thermal methodologies to have the amorphous-to-crystalline transition of those oxides, as well as the semiconducting-to-metal transition and viceversa in MoO3/MoO2.
As for the “Fabrication of plasmonic component and plasmonic actuation management”:
o Several configurations of plasmonic dimer nanoantennas based on gold and gallium, coupled to the GaS phase change material, have been designed and fabricated.
o The dielectric functions of the phase-change materials GaS, Sb2S3, MoO2 and MoO3 in the bulk, monolayer, amorphous and crystalline phases have been established, by measuring them experimentally by spectroscopic ellipsometry and validating them through DFT calculations. An optical database is being created for phase-change materials.
o An approach and code have been developed to predict the thickness at the monolayer level, of Ga-Chalcogenides materials (GaS, GaSe, GaTe) on various substrates. Universal “color rulers” useful to the 2D materials communities have been established and are available on the PHEMTRONICS website. The code to extend this universal approach to other materials on any substrate has been developed and made available by uploading it on open sources of Zenodo, Openaire with DOI: 10.5281.zenodo.5116286 at https://zenodo.org/record/5116286.
As for the “Phase-Change Management”, we have developed a Hamiltonian for a macroscopic-microscopic description/prediction of phase-transitions. The role of the phonons during phase-transitions can be described by this Hamiltonian and we are able to calculate/predict phase-transitions triggered by lasers.
As for the “Device Design”:
o we have layout the first design of nanophotonic modulator on-chip based on pioneer-investigated phase-change material cell transition GaSam↔ GaScr and order-to-order transition crystalline transformation GaSlayered↔ GaSwurtzite. Amplitude and Phase modulators have been considered.
o We have also designed a nanophotonic switch/modulator on-chip with plasmonically-enhanced GaS cell integrated atop Si3N4 nanophotonic device based on the transition GaSam↔ GaScr.
o The design of a plasmonically enhanced broadband photodetector based on the amorphous-crystalline transition of Sb2S3 has been achieved.
o The concept and design of a dynamic display based on MoO2/MoO3 transitions has been demonstrated.
The dissemination activities are well on-going, with public communications through the website (www.phemtronics.eu) social media (LinkedIn and TWITTER accounts), and several conferences/publications/posters/newsletters.
PHEMTRONICS surpasses current state-of-the-art at 4 levels:
1st level - phase-change material (PCM): by developing extreme broadband transparent optical PCMs that combine broadband low loss and large optical contrast, several phases, and wide optical band gap. These characteristics are attractive for applications that require high transmission from the visible to the mid-infrared.
2nd level - active reconfigurable plasmonic platform: by replacing passive plasmonics with dynamically reconfigurable nanoantennas and, therefore, active phase change plasmonics.
3rd level - device: by targeting a few fJ energy for structural transformations at the femtosecond scale.
4th level – technology: by enabling broadband reconfigurable technologies from telecom towards RF-compatible and optical frequencies.
The main technological outcomes of this project are working prototypes of ultrafast switches, adaptive photodetectors and reconfigurable circuits, filters, antennas and beam steering for 5G and LIDAR applications.
PHEMTRONICS is conceived to (1) create new knowledge --> (2) structure a community to exploit that knowledge--> (3) nucleate innovation leadership posing premise for competitiveness of the European SMEs creating impact in several markets of:
• radars for defense and aerospace;
• satellite communication antennas;
• optimized self-driving cars communication by instant reconfiguration of frequency to take benefit in real time of all information needed by satellites for high precision positioning and navigation;
• mobile phone antennas;
Furthermore, PHEMTRONICS switchable tunable multiarray photodetector can match targeted species absorption lines (e.g. CO2, CH4 or water vapor) to enable multispecies simultaneous detection addressing the main greenhouse gases with a single instrument to support climate models and meteorological studies supporting the European green deal and transition.
1st level - phase-change material (PCM): by developing extreme broadband transparent optical PCMs that combine broadband low loss and large optical contrast, several phases, and wide optical band gap. These characteristics are attractive for applications that require high transmission from the visible to the mid-infrared.
2nd level - active reconfigurable plasmonic platform: by replacing passive plasmonics with dynamically reconfigurable nanoantennas and, therefore, active phase change plasmonics.
3rd level - device: by targeting a few fJ energy for structural transformations at the femtosecond scale.
4th level – technology: by enabling broadband reconfigurable technologies from telecom towards RF-compatible and optical frequencies.
The main technological outcomes of this project are working prototypes of ultrafast switches, adaptive photodetectors and reconfigurable circuits, filters, antennas and beam steering for 5G and LIDAR applications.
PHEMTRONICS is conceived to (1) create new knowledge --> (2) structure a community to exploit that knowledge--> (3) nucleate innovation leadership posing premise for competitiveness of the European SMEs creating impact in several markets of:
• radars for defense and aerospace;
• satellite communication antennas;
• optimized self-driving cars communication by instant reconfiguration of frequency to take benefit in real time of all information needed by satellites for high precision positioning and navigation;
• mobile phone antennas;
Furthermore, PHEMTRONICS switchable tunable multiarray photodetector can match targeted species absorption lines (e.g. CO2, CH4 or water vapor) to enable multispecies simultaneous detection addressing the main greenhouse gases with a single instrument to support climate models and meteorological studies supporting the European green deal and transition.