Design Method of Tunable Pixel with Phase-Change Material for Diffractive Optical Elements

In this paper, we propose a scheme for designing a tunable pixel layer based on a Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) alloy thin film. We show that the phase change of GST can significantly affect the reflection characteristic when the GST film is embedded into a dielectric encapsulation layer. We investigate the appropriate positions of the GST film within the dielectric layer for high diffraction efficiency, and we prove that they are antinodes of Fabry–Perot resonance inside the dielectric layer. Using the proposed scheme, we can increase the diffraction efficiency by about ten times compared to a bare GST film pixel, and 80 times for the first-to-zeroth-order diffraction power ratio. We show that the proposed scheme can be designed alternatively for a broadband or wavelength-selective type by tuning the dielectric thickness, and we discuss a multi-phase example with a double-stack structure.