Design and Fabrication of Tunable Photonic Devices Using Phase-Change Materials

Date of Award

5-1-2025

Degree Name

Ph.D. in Electro-Optics

Department

Department of Electro-Optics and Photonics

Advisor/Chair

Imad Agha

Abstract

The advancement of photonic and semiconductor technologies increasingly depends on materials and fabrication methods that enable dynamic, high-resolution, and scalable architectures. Phase change materials (PCMs), such as vanadium dioxide (VO2) and germanium antimony telluride (GST), offer reversible phase transitions with significant optical and electrical modulation. This dissertation presents three projects that integrate PCMs into reconfigurable optical components and lithographic processes, leveraging their unique switching behavior. The first project demonstrates a thermally tunable VO2 wire-grid polarizer operating in the mid-wave infrared (MWIR), with a 6 dB extinction ratio. A scalable fabrication workflow is presented to streamline the photolithographic patterning of vanadium. The second project introduces a low-cost photothermal lithography method using PCM thin films, enabling sub-diffraction patterning down to 300 nm with <10 nm sidewall roughness and near-100% yield under relaxed conditions. The final project presents an electrically biased GST-based tunable mid-IR filter. Electric switching enables index tuning, while maintaining angular-independent resonance up to 60°. These works underscore the potential of PCMs in dynamic photonic systems and scalable nanomanufacturing.

Keywords

Engineering, Nanotechnology, Optics

Rights Statement

Copyright 2025, author.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS