Optical mid-infrared modulator based on D-shaped photonic crystal fiber and GST phase changing material

Abstract

Photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) have recently attracted compelling attention because of their numerous applications, particularly in the mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelength region. In this paper, we have presented and analyzed mid-IR optical modulator based on phase-changing material (PCM) known as germanium-antimony-tellurium (GST) and D-shaped PCF. The modulation process can be performed as the GST material’s phase undergoes a transition between amorphous (on) and crystalline (off) states. To analyze the proposed design numerically, full vectorial finite element method (FVFEM) is employed. Further, we studied the light propagation through the suggested structure using 3D finite difference time domain (FDTD) method. The optical losses of the fundamental transverse electric (TE) mode supported by the reported structure in the two GST states are studied. The obtained extinction ratio (ER) of the proposed modulator approaches 302.61 dB, whereas the insertion loss (IL) is less than 0.00014 dB throughout the wavelength range from 3 to 5.8 μm at a device length (LD) of 0.2 mm. Therefore, the suggested modulator can be utilized in photonic integrated circuits that require high ER, very low IL, and large optical bandwidth.