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arXiv · 1811.07651

Plasmonic nanogap enhanced phase change devices with dual electrical-optical functionality

Abstract

Modern-day computers use electrical signaling for processing and storing data which is bandwidth limited and power-hungry. These limitations are bypassed in the field of communications, where optical signaling is the norm. To exploit optical signaling in computing, however, new on-chip devices that work seamlessly in both electrical and optical domains are needed. Phase change devices can in principle provide such functionality, but doing so in a single device has proved elusive due to conflicting requirements of size-limited electrical switching and diffraction-limited photonic devices. Here, we combine plasmonics, photonics and electronics to deliver a novel integrated phase-change memory and computing cell that can be electrically or optically switched between binary or multilevel states, and read-out in either mode, thus merging computing and communications technologies.

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Nikolaos Farmakidis, Nathan Youngblood, Xuan Li, James Tan, Jacob L. Swett, Zengguang Cheng, David C Wright, Wolfram HP Pernice, Harish Bhaskaran. 2018-11-19. Plasmonic nanogap enhanced phase change devices with dual electrical-optical functionality. https://arxiv.org/abs/1811.07651

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