Electro‐Thermo‐Optical Simulations of Phase‐Change GST‐SiC Plasmonic Optical Modulator for Telecom Applications

Abstract

This study proposes a novel plasmonic optical modulator integrating the phase‐change material germanium‐antimony‐tellurium (GST) with a silicon carbide (SiC) waveguide for telecom applications. The design utilizes a 10 nm GST cladding layer and a 290 nm thick, 100 nm wide SiC ridge waveguide, with gold electrodes enabling electrothermal switching of GST between amorphous and crystalline states. Comprehensive simulations spanning optical, electrical‐thermal, and opto‐thermal domains investigated the modulator's performance. Optical simulations examine the effects of wavelength, ridge width, and GST thickness on effective refractive index, confinement factor, and effective area. Electrical‐thermal simulations determines voltage pulse parameters for phase transitions and analyzed temperature distributions. Opto‐thermal simulations explored temperature's influence on the effective refractive index during phase transitions. Results demonstrate the modulator's potential, achieving 160 Mb s−1 at 1.55 µm. The SiC‐GST integration offers high thermal conductivity, low thermo‐optic coefficient, and significant refractive index contrast between GST phases, enabling efficient light modulation for high‐performance, compact, energy‐efficient optical modulators advancing integrated photonics.