Microheater hotspot engineering for repeatable multi-level switching in foundry-processed phase change silicon photonics

Microheater hotspot engineering for repeatable multi-level switching in foundry-processed phase change silicon photonics | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Article Microheater hotspot engineering for repeatable multi-level switching in foundry-processed phase change silicon photonics Carlos A. Rios Ocampo, Hongyi Sun, Chuanyu Lian, Francis Vásquez-Aza, and 8 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-4631376/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 May, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract Nonvolatile photonic integrated circuits employing phase change materials have relied either on optical switching mechanisms with precise multi-level control but poor scalability or electrical switching with seamless integration and scalability but mostly limited to a binary response. Recent works have demonstrated electrical multi-level switching; however, they relied on the stochastic nucleation process to achieve partial crystallization with low demonstrated repeatability and cyclability. Here, we re-engineer waveguide-integrated microheaters to achieve precise spatial control of the temperature profile (i.e., hotspot) and, thus, switch deterministic areas of an embedded phase change material cell. We experimentally demonstrate this concept using a variety of foundry-processed doped-silicon microheaters on a silicon-on-insulator platform to trigger multi-step amorphization and reversible switching of Sb 2 Se 3 and Ge 2 Sb 2 Se 4 Te alloys. We further characterize the response of our microheaters using Transient Thermoreflectance Imaging. Our approach combines the deterministic control resulting from a spatially resolved glassy-crystalline distribution with the scalability of electro-thermal switching devices, thus paving the way to reliable multi-level switching towards robust reprogrammable phase-change photonic devices for analog processing and computing. Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Optical materials and structures/Silicon photonics Physical sciences/Materials science/Materials for optics/Nanophotonics and plasmonics Physical sciences/Optics and photonics/Applied optics/Integrated optics Full Text Additional Declarations There is NO Competing Interest. Supplementary Files supplementaryfinal.pdf Cite Share Download PDF Status: Published Journal Publication published 09 May, 2025 Read the published version in Nature Communications → Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-4631376","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":false,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":322437083,"identity":"d85a1842-e6b6-4224-b7f0-ac9a258faced","order_by":0,"name":"Carlos A. 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