Broadband Electrically Tunable Dielectric Resonators Using Metal-Insulator Transitions

Abstract:

Vanadium-dioxide (VO₂) undergoes an insulator-to-metal phase transition that dramatically changes its complex permittivity, providing an attractive mechanism for actively reconfiguring optical resonances. Here we embed sub-wavelength VO₂ inclusions inside high-index silicon nitride dielectric resonators and demonstrate electrically controlled, broadband modulation of their scattering response across the near-infrared. In the insulating phase the resonators support high-Q magnetic and electric Mie-type modes; driving VO₂ into the metallic state introduces a strong loss channel that suppresses these modes and red-shifts the extinction spectrum by more than 400 nm. Full-field simulations capture the observed evolution and reveal that the modulation bandwidth can be extended throughout the telecom window by tailoring the VO₂ volume fraction. Our results highlight a simple route toward compact, CMOS-compatible, chip-scale devices for dynamic beam steering, tunable filters, and hybrid photonic–plasmonic circuits.