Optical sensing by silicon slot-based directional couplers

A theoretical investigation of an optical liquid sensor, based on asymmetric directional coupler employing slot optical waveguides, is carried out. The sensing principle is based on the shift in the waveguide transmitted spectrum induced by analyte refractive index change. Silicon-on-insulator technology has been assumed in sensor design, and sensor modelling is carried out by using the coupled modes theory and the finite element method. The influence of geometrical parameters on the sensor characteristics has been investigated. A minimum detectable refractive index change of the order of 10^?6 can be theoretically predicted.     

Antiresonant guiding optofluidic biosensor

We propose a novel optofluidic biosensor in which detection is based on a shift in the transmission spectrum due to the contrast in refractive index between the carrier fluid and the target biomaterial. The sensor can function using focused illumination without the need for fiber or waveguide coupled input/output signals. We study the spectral response of the sensor using 2D full-wave time-harmonic field analysis and perform parametric analysis of detection sensitivity as a function of material and device parameters. Our analysis demonstrates that detectible shifts in the transmission spectrum can be achieved with nanoscale accumulation of biomaterial within the sensor. We show that the transmission minima and detection sensitivity can be estimated using analytical expressions based on a 1D antiresonant waveguide model.     

Propagation properties of a modified surface plasmonic waveguide with an arc slot

We introduce a modified surface plasmonic waveguide with an arc slot. The dependences of distribution of energy flux density, effective index, propagation length and mode area of the symmetric mode supported by this waveguide on geometrical parameters and working wavelength are analysed by using the finite-difference frequency-domain (FDFD) method. Results show that the energy flux density distributes mainly in four corners which are formed by two arcs, and the closer to the corners it is, the stronger the energy flux density will be. The effective index, the propagation length and the mode area are influenced by geometrical parameters, including the width, the thickness and the arc radius of the surface plasmonic waveguide, as well as the working wavelength. It has been shown that the surface plasmonic waveguide with an arc slot has better propagation properties than the surface plasmonic waveguide with a straight slot. This work may be helpful for applying the slot surface plasmonic waveguide to integrated photonics.     

Design of a highly sensitive photonic crystal waveguide platform for refractive index based biosensing

In this paper, a photonic crystal waveguide platform on silicon-on-insulator substrate is proposed in order to realize a highly sensitive refractive index based biosensor. Following the design, the analysis of the sensor structure are made by using the three dimensional Finite Difference Time Domain method. The principle of sensing is based on the change in refractive index, which in turn changes the output spectrum of the waveguide. Results show that the sensitivity of the sensor depends mainly on the geometrical properties of the defect region of the photonic crystal structure. The phenomenon is verified for various samples having refractive index ranging from 1 (air) to 1.57 (Bovine serum albumin). Further, the structure is compared with few other conventional photonic crystal waveguide designs to analyze the sensing performance. The estimated value of sensitivity of the sensor is found to be 260 nm/RIU with a detection limit of 0.001 RIU. This high sensitivity can enhance the performance of low-concentration analytes detection.     

Enhancement of sensitivity in optical waveguide sensors using left-handed materials

We show analytically that the sensitivity of an optical waveguide sensor can be dramatically enhanced by using a metamaterial with negative permittivity and permeability. The variation of the sensitivity of the proposed waveguide sensor with different parameters of the waveguide is studied. It is found that the sensitivity of the sensor increases with the increasing thickness of the metamaterial due to the surface polariton generation.     

Novel high-quality Fano resonance based on metal-insulator-metal waveguide with L-shaped resonators

Developing a convenient method that can be routinely applied for ascertaining proportions of different vegetable oils employed in commercial blended edible oils remains a significant challenge. We address this issue by proposing a novel method for detecting volume fraction of different oils based on the fact that these oils are optically transparent and have slightly different indices of refraction at a given temperature and wavelength. Accordingly, we develop a highly sensitive sensor for measuring the index of refraction of oil blends based on Fano resonance spectra obtained using a metal-insulatormetal(MIM) waveguide structure comprising a gapped straight waveguide coupled with two L-shaped resonators. The index of refraction sensitivity and figure of merit of the structure are calculated based on modeling using the finite element method, and the waveguide structure is accordingly optimized by adjusting the different geometric parameters to achieve a high-quality Fano resonance spectrum. The optimized structure achieves an ultra-high refractive index sensitivity of 770 nm/RIU in terms of a refractive index unit(RIU) of 1. Moreover, a highly stable linear relationship is obtained between the refractive index of mixed edible oils and the resonance wavelength. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed structure can detect slight changes in the volume fractions of the components in blended oils.     

Performance study of a liquid-core Bragg fiber sensor in presence of a defect layer

Performance parameter of a Bragg fiber waveguide based resonant sensor in presence of a defect layer in cladding regions is theoretically studied. The Bragg fiber waveguide consists of a liquid-core surrounded by alternate high and low refractive indices materials in cladding regions. Reflectivity of the proposed waveguide based resonant sensor is formulated using transfer matrix method for a non-homogeneous multilayer cylindrical system. The waveguide shows a band gap region with a narrow defect mode in the band gap region under the considered wavelength range. Instead of taking a whole band gap as a sensing signal, here the defect peak is taken as the sensing signal. It is observed that the intensity of defect mode is more sensitive for core refractive index than the intensity of traditional band gap region (lobe). This study shows that the higher sensitivity can be achieved by creating the defect at a position in cladding region where the intensity of transmitted light lies between 40% and 90%. Presence of a defect layer is able to increase the detection accuracy of the sensor and, hence increase the overall performance of this sensor.     

Terahertz multi-metal-wire hybrid-cladding hollow waveguide for refractive index sensing

We propose a design of terahertz refractive index sensing based on the multi-metal-wire(MMW) hybrid-cladding hollow waveguide. The proposed terahertz hybrid-cladding hollow waveguide comprises one air core in the center surrounding MMW surrounded dielectric. The central air core is used for filling lossless measurands and transmitting terahertz light. In particular, the refractive index sensing is realized by measuring the mode field area(MFA) variation of radially polarized mode. The modal effective refractive index, mode field intensity distribution, and mode field area properties responding to the measurand refractive indexes for different operating frequencies and structure dimensions are investigated, respectively.Simulations show that the proposed terahertz refractive index sensor can realize easily the measurement of the measurand refractive index. Meanwhile, the effects of operating frequency and structure parameters on sensitivity and measurement accuracy are also studied. In view of the trade-off between sensitivity and measurement accuracy, the reasonable choice of the operating frequency and structure parameters can optimize appropriately the sensitivity and measurement accuracy, and the sensitivity can reach approximately 0.585 mm~2/RIU(RIU is short for refraction index units) with the proper frequency and structure parameter.     

微槽式光学谐振腔超声传感效应验证*

摘 要：光学微腔的高灵敏度主要源于其结构在时间和空间上对光场的局域增强作用和频率选择作用。其结构在垂直于波导方向上形成了高反射的边界,形成了一种回声腔,使得光在波导内来回反射,从而增强了波导内部的光场强度。当外界存在微小的压力波动时,它将引起波导内部的介电常数和压力场的变化,从而改变了谐振腔内的模式场分布和传输特性,据此可以实现对微小的压力波动进行高灵敏度检测。本文设计了一种高品质因子（Q）的光波导微槽式环形谐振腔超声传感器,完成器件制备并搭建了测试系统,依据倏逝波效应实现了超声探测。测试结果表明,该传感器的品质因子为1.38×107,在800 kHz ~1 MHz范围内响应平坦,在900 kHz的信噪比可以达到27 dB,灵敏度达到 -168 dB。本文设计的传感器可以为水声探测等领域的研究提供关键技术支持。     

Optical uniform/gradient waveguide sensor structure - characterization

The paper presents the characterization of a composite uniform/gradient waveguide sensor structure. The results of theoretical analysis and experimental studies have been presented. The influence of sensor structure parameters on homogenous sensitivity and on surface sensitivity has been analyzed. Gradient layers for composite sensor structures were produced using the ion-exchange method, and the uniform layers, using the sol-gel method. In the experimental studies, involving the produced sensor structures, a prism coupler and a grating coupler were applied. Excellent agreement between the results of theoretical analysis and experimental studies has been achieved.     

Embossable grating couplers for planar evanescent wave sensors

The paper presents the characterization of a composite uniform/gradient waveguide sensor structure. The results of theoretical analysis and experimental studies have been presented. The influence of sensor structure parameters on homogenous sensitivity and on surface sensitivity has been analyzed. Gradient layers for composite sensor structures were produced using the ion-exchange method, and the uniform layers, using the sol-gel method. In the experimental studies, involving the produced sensor structures, a prism coupler and a grating coupler were applied. Excellent agreement between the results of theoretical analysis and experimental studies has been achieved.     

Characterization and sensor properties of sol-gel SiO2:TiO2 film/ion-exchange glass optical waveguides

The paper presents the characterization and sensor properties of composite sol-gel SiO₂:TiO₂ film/ion-exchange glass optical waveguides. In the theoretical part of the paper the analysis involving the influence of the parameters of a uniform waveguide film on homogeneous sensitivity has been presented. It has been shown that the highest sensitivity can be obtained making use of the interference of TM₀-TM₁ modes. In the experimental part of the work the manufacturing technology of composite sol-gel SiO₂:TiO₂ film/ion-exchange glass optical waveguides has been described and the analysis results of the produced structures have been presented. The paper presents the influence of the thickness of the uniform waveguide film and the influence of the refractive index of the cover on effective refractive indexes. The produced waveguide structures are characterized by high homogeneous sensitivity.     

All polymer asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer waveguide sensor by imprinting bonding and laser polishing

We present an all polymer asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer(AMZI) waveguide sensor based on imprinting bonding and laser polishing method. The fabrication methods are compatible with high accuracy waveguide sensing structure. The rectangle waveguide structure of this sensor has three sensing surfaces contacting the test media, and its sensing accuracy can be increased 5 times compared with that of one surface sensing structure. An AMZI device structure is designed. The single mode condition, the length of the sensing arm, and the length deviation between the sensing arm and the reference arm are optimized. The length deviation is optimized to be 19.8 μm in a refractive index range between1.470 and 1.545. We fabricate the AMZI waveguide by lithography and wet etching method. The imprinting bonding and laser polishing method is proposed and investigated. The insertion loss is between-80.36 dB and-10.63 dB. The average and linear sensitivity are 768.1 d B/RIU and 548.95 dB/RIU, respectively. And the average and linear detection resolution of the sensor are 1.30×10~(-6) RIU(RIU: refractive index unit) and 1.82×10~(-5) RIU, respectively. This sensor has a fast and cost-effective fabrication process which can be used in the cases of requiring portability and disposability.     

Full vectorial finite element modeling of novel polarization rotators

In this paper, the numerically efficient finite element based full vectorial modal and propagation approaches are used in order to analyze and design single and multiple sectioned passive polarization rotators (PRs). The effects of different waveguide parameters, such as the waveguide width, etching depth, sidewall slant angle and refractive index contrast on the PR performance in terms of polarization conversion efficiency, section length and losses are investigated in detail in order to obtain optimum PR designs. Moreover, a thorough sensitivity study of the fabrication tolerances and the operating wavelength on the performance of the PRs has also been carried out.     

Vertical input optical ring resonator with differential operation for optical sensor

A novel waveguide ring resonator optical sensor with two resonant wavelength channels is proposed for a refractive index measurement of a test sample placed on the sensor substrate and its performance characteristics are investigated analytically and numerically. The waveguide device consists of a ring resonator, a split-ring-shaped loop waveguide, and a vertical input/output grating coupler, in which the loop waveguide acts as an additional resonator and provides another output wavelength channel of the sensor. The differential detection between the two wavelength channels enables the highly sensitive detection with temperature compensation. A numerical simulation based on a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method shows that a precise index change detection with a resolution of 10⁻⁶ can be achieved using of the proposed device.     

A novel wavelength dispersive device with a dispersive element based on staircase-like straight and parallel arrayed waveguides

We propose a new type of arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer/demultiplexer based on modified group refractive index. This device is composed by an array of straight and parallel waveguides of equal length and each waveguide consist of two sections with different width. The length of the two sections are changed from a waveguide to the adjacent one following a linear dependence resulting in a wavelength dispersive waveguide array. An example of the device design for silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform is provided and numerical simulations have been carried out for various arrayed waveguide parameters. We demonstrate that the group index modification can be used for tailoring device dispersion properties, and that it can also result in new dispersion characteristics predicted numerically not observed in conventional AWGs. Additional advantages are that the demultiplexer does not necessarily require bending waveguide sections as in a conventional AWG (de)multiplexers, and thus yields highly compact devices with potentially very low insertion loss. Channel spacing of 1 nm have been predicted for sub-micron waveguides sizes. In this paper it is also proposed a novel wavefront converter based on waveguide array lens-like element with waveguides broadened sections. Numerical results for different input/output geometries are analized.     

Silicon-Based Integrated Optic Pressure Sensor Using Intermodal Interference between TM-Like and TE-Like Modes

In this paper, a silicon-based integrated optic pressure sensor using an intermodal interference between the fundamental TM-like and TE-like modes is described. The sensor consists of a micromachined rectangular diaphragm and a straight polystyrene optical waveguide passing over the diaphragm. Its sensitivity is theoretically known to be strongly dependent on the position of the waveguide over the diaphragm. To experimentally investigate such dependence, we fabricated a sensor with a 1.2 mm 2 10 mm 2 20 w m diaphragm, over which waveguides were placed at 50 w m intervals. The measured phase sensitivity was 98 mrad/kPa for the waveguide nearest to the diaphragm edge. The measurement was also carried out for the other waveguides. As theoretically expected, the largest sensitivity was obtained for the waveguide nearest to the edge.     

基于平面波导激励的修正长程表面波的传感器研究

为了解决传统的强度检测型波导激励的表面等离子体共振传感器灵敏度不高的缺点,研究平面波导激励的介质膜-金属-被测介质的可激发修正的长程表面等离子体波结构。采用离子交换的方法制备折射率可用费米函数拟合的平面波导,研究了离子交换时间对平面波导的模数及等效折射率等特性的影响,为激励波导的优化设计提供有效依据。采用制备的平面波导激励介质膜-金属-被测介质的非对称结构,研究金属材质、介质膜厚和金属膜厚等因素对修正的长程表面等离子体波特性的影响,对被测溶液的折射率进行检测。实验结果表明,其灵敏度为传统的强度检测型表面等离子体共振传感器的6倍,并且具有较好的线性关系。     

The study of electro-optical sensor based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide

A compact and sensitive electro-optical sensor based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide (S-PhCW) is demonstrated. The electro-optical sensor can be realized in photonic crystal (PhC) slabs of silicon in Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI). Nonlinear optical polymer is used as infiltration. By applying three-dimensional finite difference time domain (3D-FDTD), the sensitivity and quality factor of electro-optical sensor with different slotted waveguide width are calculated. In addition, sensitivity and the optical properties such as transmission spectrum and field distributions are compared between electro-optical sensor based on line defect photonic crystal waveguide (W1-PhCW) and that based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide (S-PhCW). Simulation results demonstrate that, compared with electro-optical sensor based on line defect photonic crystal waveguide, the sensitivity and quality factor is improved by 30 times and 6.6 times respectively in sensor based on slotted photonic crystal waveguide. Besides, the proposed PhC sensor devices have the advantage of a compact structure with the potential for monolithic integration with optical-to-electrical on-chip conversion and detection.     

波导内置硅块对高功率太赫兹脉冲的响应

利用三维电磁场时域有限差分法,对0.3~0.4 THz高功率太赫兹脉冲作用下置于矩形波导内部宽边中心的n型硅块响应规律进行了研究。通过对置入硅块前后矩形波导内电磁场分布、电压驻波比及硅块内平均电场的模拟分析,得出硅块几何尺寸和电阻率对上述物理量的响应规律,硅块长、宽、高和电阻率均会对波导内电压驻波系数产生影响,其中以高度影响最为明显;硅块内平均电场在低频段和高频段单调性不一致。最后,在优化硅块长、宽、高及电阻率的基础上,给出了一种可用于该频段高功率太赫兹脉冲直接测量的电阻探测器芯片设计方案,其相对灵敏度约为0.509 kW-1,幅度波动不超过14%,电压驻波比不大于1.34。