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arXiv · 2604.11649

High-Endurance, Low-loss Sb2Se3 Optical Switches on Silicon Nitride using Transparent Conductive Heaters

Xingshi Yu·Ipsita Chakraborty·Isaac Johnson·Savvas I. Raptis·Qianbin Luo·Thalia Dominguez Bucio·Elliot Sandell·Chris Vagionas·Ioannis Zeimpekis·Amalia Miliou·Nikos Pleros·Frederic Gardes
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Abstract

We report an electrically actuated, low-loss non-volatile optical switch based on the phase-change material (PCM) Sb2Se3 integrated on a silicon nitride (Si3N4) platform. The device is fabricated using an 8-inch wafer-scale process flow, demonstrating the feasibility of scalable manufacturing for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). By employing transparent indium tin oxide (ITO) micro-heaters, reversible switching between the amorphous and crystalline states is achieved with an extinction ratio of 25~dB and an endurance exceeding 140 million switching cycles, establishing a new benchmark for non-volatile integrated photonic memory and reconfigurable architectures. Furthermore, multi-level operation beyond 6 bits can be repeatably demonstrated by tailoring the electrical pulse widths, enabling precise control of the optical phase. These results highlight a scalable and energy-efficient platform for high-density programmable and non-volatile photonic integrated systems.

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Xingshi Yu, Ipsita Chakraborty, Isaac Johnson, Savvas I. Raptis, Qianbin Luo, Thalia Dominguez Bucio, Elliot Sandell, Chris Vagionas, Ioannis Zeimpekis, Amalia Miliou, Nikos Pleros, Frederic Gardes. 2026-04-13. High-Endurance, Low-loss Sb2Se3 Optical Switches on Silicon Nitride using Transparent Conductive Heaters. https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.11649

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