High-Performance Optical Gating in Junction Device based on Vanadium Dioxide Thin Film Grown by Sol-Gel Method

Abstract

-In this paper, a high-performance optical gating in a junction device based on a vanadium dioxide dioxide (VO 2 ) thin film grown by a sol-gel method was experimentally demonstrated by directly illuminating the VO 2 film of the device with an infrared light at ~1554.6 nm. The threshold voltage of the fabricated device could be tuned by ~76.8 % at an illumination power of ~39.8 mW resulting in a tuning efficiency of ~1.930 %/mW, which was ~4.9 times as large as that obtained in the previous device fabricated using the VO 2 thin film deposited by a pulsed laser deposition method. The rising and falling times of the optical gating operation were measured as ~50 ms and ~200 ms, respectively, which were ~20 times as rapid as those obtained in the previous device.

Bidirectional laser triggering of planar device based on vanadium dioxide thin film

“…When a VO 2 thin film forms a two-terminal device, electric field applied to the device can cause this PT [4], and a negative differential resistance (NDR) [5,7], originated from the discontinuity of the PT, is observed in the VO 2 -based device, resulting in not an exponential increase but an abrupt jump of electrical current. In particular, through the interaction with external light illuminating the VO 2 device, this highly nonlinear current-voltage (I-V) behavior can be modulated temporarily [8,9] or permanently [10]. By incorporating this photo-induced modulation of the I-V behavior of the device, field-induced electrical oscillation in VO 2 can be generated or extinguished, and its frequency can be externally controlled [11].…”

“…In addition, bistable electrical switching, i.e., bistable device resistances, can also be realized at a single illumination (probe) power [12,13]. In our previous studies, photo-assisted electrical gating was implemented in a two-terminal planar VO 2 device, and its threshold voltage, after which a current jump occurred triggering the PT of VO 2 , could be shifted by controlling the optical power of the infrared laser illuminating the device [6,8,9]. However, the maximum on-state current of the device was at most ~3.9 mA resulting in an amplitude switching ratio between on-and off-state currents of less than 4 [6].…”

“…In particular, the relationship between the maximum on-state current and the bias voltage applied to the device has not been clarified. It was restrictive to control the temporal duration of the on-state current, during which the laser illuminated the device [8,9]. For VO 2 devices to be considered for the practical application of optically-gated switches like light-triggered thyristors, lots of device parameters including the switching ratio, the off-state current, and the on-state current should be significantly improved, and the duration of the switched state should be flexibly chosen.…”

Performance Enhancement of Nanoscale VO2 Modulators Using Hybrid Plasmonics

“…In essence, this architecture enables the ON-state loss, which is also termed insertion loss (IL) to be maintained at relatively low values while significantly increasing the difference between the OFF-and ON-state losses, or extinction ratio (ER). The deposition of VO 2 on a variety of different substrates including Si has been demonstrated in previous work [4,6,16,17], and thus the HPSPP/VO 2 modulator structure we present here is amenable to fabrication with current technologies.…”

“…The optical switching associated with the metal-insulator transition (MIT) of vanadium dioxide (VO 2 ), for example, has been proposed for numerous applications. VO 2 has been integrated with micro-and nanophotonic structures to achieve useful devices, such as waveguide modulators for optical communications [4], tunable plasmonics based optical antennas to realize spatial light modulators or active displays [5], ultrathin perfect absorbers [5], and optical gating for light triggered thyristors in power electronics [6]. Another class of PCMs is the chalcogenides, such as Ge 2 Sb 2 Te 5 (GST), which are capable of switching between amorphous and crystalline states on a picosecond timescale.…”