Dynamically tunable all-dielectric nonlinear metasurfaces incorporating phase-change chalcogenides

Subwavelength nonlinear optical sources with high efficiency have received extensive attention although strong dynamic tunability of these sources is still elusive. Germanium antimony telluride (GST) as a well-established phase-change chalcogenide is a promising candidate for the reconfiguration of subwavelength nanostructures. Here, we design an electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT)-based high-quality-factor (high-Q) silicon metasurface that is actively controlled with a quarter-wave asymmetric Fabry-Perot cavity incorporating GST to modulate the relative phase of incident and reflected pump waves. We demonstrate a multi-level third-harmonic generation (THG) switch with a theoretical modulation depth as high as ~ 70 dB for the fundamental C-band crossing through multiple intermediate states of GST. This study shows the high potential of GST-based dynamic nonlinear photonic switches for a wide range of applications ranging from communications to optical computing.