Electrically programmable photonic crystal slab based on the metal-insulator transition in VO2

The possibility of an electrically programmable photonic crystal is investigated theoretically based on the metal-insulator transition of vanadium dioxide $\left({\mathrm{VO}}_2\right)$ . Recent experiments indicate that this phase transition of the first order can be controlled via external bias and results in significant changes in the electrical and optical properties of ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$ . We propose a slab structure based on ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$ whose dielectric properties are modulated periodically in the in-plane direction by selectively inducing phase transition through a lithographically defined array of gate electrodes. A two-dimensional photonic band calculation predicts the presence of a band gap, clearly illustrating the feasibility of the proposed structure. The electrically controlled nature may enable the ${\mathrm{VO}}_2$ - based structure to be programmable at a very high speed.