Using phase-change materials to switch the direction of reflectionless light propagation in non-PT-symmetric structures

We introduce a non-parity-time-symmetric three-layer structure, consisting of a gain medium layer sandwiched between two phase-change medium layers for switching of the direction of reflectionless light propagation. We show that for this structure unidirectional reflectionlessness in the forward direction can be switched to unidirectional reflectionlessness in the backward direction at the optical communication wavelength by switching the phase-change material Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) from its amorphous to its crystalline phase. We also show that it is the existence of exceptional points for this structure with GST in both its amorphous and crystalline phases which leads to unidirectional reflectionless propagation in the forward direction for GST in its amorphous phase, and in the backward direction for GST in its crystalline phase. Our results could be potentially important for developing a new generation of compact active free-space optical devices. We also show that phase-change materials can be used to switch photonic nanostructures between cloaking and superscattering regimes at mid-infrared wavelengths. More specifically, we investigate the scattering properties of subwavelength three-layer cylindrical structures in which the material in the outer shell is the phase-change material GST. We first show that, when GST is switched between its amorphous and crystalline phases, properly designed electrically small structures can switch between resonant scattering and cloaking invisibility regimes. The contrast ratio between the scattering cross sections of the cloaking invisibility and resonant scattering regimes reaches almost unity. We then also show that larger, moderately small cylindrical structures can be designed to switch between superscattering and cloaking invisibility regimes, when GST is switched between its crystalline and amorphous phases. The contrast ratio between the scattering cross sections of cloaking invisibility and superscattering regimes can be as high as ∼ 93%. Our results could be potentially important for developing a new generation of compact reconfigurable optical devices.