Opto-thermal dynamics of thin-film optical limiters based on the VO2 phase transition

Year: 2023

Authors: Tognazzi Andrea; Gandolfi Marco; Li Bohan; Ambrosio Gina; Franceschini Paolo; Camacho-Morales Rocio; Cino Alfonso Carmelo; Baratto Camilla; de Ceglia Domenico; Neshev Dragomir; De Angelis Costantino

Autors Affiliation: Univ Palermo, Dept Engn, Viale Sci Ed 9, I-90128 Palermo, Italy; CNR, Ist Nazl Ott, Via Branze 45, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Univ Brescia, Dept Informat Engn, Via Branze 38, I-25123 Brescia, Italy; Consorzio Nazl Interuniv Telecomunicazioni CNIT, Viale GP Usberti 181-A Sede Sci Ingn Palazzina 3, I-43124 Parma, Italy; Australian Natl Univ, ARC Ctr Excellence Transformat Meta Opt Syst TMOS, Res Sch Phys, Canberra, ACT 2601, Australia.

Abstract: Protection of human eyes or sensitive detectors from high-intensity laser radiation is an important challenge in modern light technologies. Metasurfaces have proved to be valuable tools for such light control, but the actual possibility of merging multiple materials in the nanofabrication process hinders their application. Here we propose and numerically investigate the opto-thermal properties of plane multilayered structures with phase-change materials for optical limiters. Our structure relies on thin-film VO2 phase change material on top of a gold film and a sapphire substrate. We show how such a multi-layer structure can act as a self-activating device that exploits light-to-heat conversion to induce a phase change in the VO2 layer. We implement a numerical model to describe the temporal evolution of the temperature and transmittivity across the device under both a continuous wave and pulsed illumination. Our results open new opportunities for multi-layer self-activating optical limiters and may be extended to devices based on other phase change materials or different spectral regions.(c) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Journal/Review: OPTICAL MATERIALS EXPRESS

Volume: 13 (1)      Pages from: 41  to: 52

KeyWords: VO2; optical limiting; phase changing material
DOI: 10.1364/OME.472347

Citations: 12
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