What is this collection about?
Chalcogenide phase-change materials exhibit a unique capability for abrupt, repeatable, and non-volatile modulation of optical properties through reversible switching between amorphous and crystalline phases. Thanks to these properties, over the past decade their integration with nanophotonic architectures has emerged as a powerful route toward dynamically reconfigurable optical functionalities. Yet, despite significant progress carried out, chalcogenide phase-change nanophotonics remains at a relatively early stage of maturity, with several challenges still limiting scalability and practicability.
We seek contributions on fundamental understanding, materials engineering, and device level integration, as well as work that introduces new device concepts enabled by the integration of phase-change materials with photonic systems.
Why is this collection important?
While phase-change reconfigurable nanophotonics holds great promise for enabling high-speed, reconfigurable photonic devices with zero static power consumption, significant challenges remain. These include the discovery and optimization of phase-change materials with enhanced optical properties, improving device endurance and reliability through a deeper understanding of failure mechanisms, developing scalable fabrication strategies, or achieving seamless integration with established nanophotonic architectures. This Collection seeks to address these challenges and accelerate the translation of emerging phase-change photonic concepts into practical technologies by fostering advances across the innovation pipeline, from fundamental materials development and characterisation to device integration. The scope of this Collection aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 9 (SDG 9): Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure.
Why submit to a collection?
Collections like this one help promote high-quality science. They are led by In-House Editors who are experts in their fields and supported by a dedicated team of Commissioning Editors and Managing Editors at Springer Nature. Collection manuscripts typically see higher citations, downloads, and Altmetric scores, and provide a one-stop-shop on a cutting-edge topic of interest.
Who is involved?
This is a cross-journal Collection involving Nature Communications, Communications Engineering and Communications Materials. Authors are welcome to submit to any of the participating journals. All manuscripts published in the collection are hosted on a dedicated nature portfolio portal, giving articles high visibility beyond the journal they are published in.
How can I submit my paper?
Visit the Collection page to find out more about this collection and submit your article.