  Modern-day computers use electrical signaling for processing and storing data
which is bandwidth limited and power-hungry. These limitations are bypassed in
the field of communications, where optical signaling is the norm. To exploit
optical signaling in computing, however, new on-chip devices that work
seamlessly in both electrical and optical domains are needed. Phase change
devices can in principle provide such functionality, but doing so in a single
device has proved elusive due to conflicting requirements of size-limited
electrical switching and diffraction-limited photonic devices. Here, we combine
plasmonics, photonics and electronics to deliver a novel integrated
phase-change memory and computing cell that can be electrically or optically
switched between binary or multilevel states, and read-out in either mode, thus
merging computing and communications technologies.
