Strong coupling between light and ionic vibrations in matter (phonons) gives rise to composite light-matter waves referred to as phonon polaritons (PhPs). Such strong coupling is common in polar semiconductors within a spectral band in the infrared (IR) known as the reststrahlen band. While bulk materials are essentially near-perfect reflectors in the reststrahlen band, structured materials have vast capabilities in their photonic responses. We leverage here the permittivity responses induced by phonon polaritons to design structures behaving as near-perfect absorbers/thermal emitters. We discuss a lithography-free design route to near-perfect absorption within a material layer as thin as one thousandth the free space wavelength. Furthermore, we present a paradigm inspired by moth eyes exhibiting all-angle near-unidirectional absorption and thermal emission. Our findings are relevant to the development of selective thermal emitters and passive radiative cooling devices.
Colorimetric sensors are ubiquitous tools that are deployed in various research, academic and on-field diagnostic settings. High accuracy and quick readout capability of these sensors are key for biochemical sensing and medical diagnostics. In this article, we introduce ColorX, a novel colorimetric sensor built by modifying a genetic commercially available fitness tracker. The inbuilt components of a fitness tracker such as a heart-rate sensor, LEDs, photodiodes, transimpedance amplifiers provide a compact and portable form factor. ColorX leverages the bluetooth from the fitness tracker for wireless data transmission to smart phones. As a device validation strategy, ColorX was validated by measuring Nitrates in water. In all our experiments ColorX matched the technical performance of a standard benchspectrophotometer. ColorX was able to achieve excellent sensitivity in measuring nitrates as low as 10mg/ml.
In this article, we present experimental and simulation results of a novel dual-wavelength laser source that emits in the regime of 764nm and 820nm. These wavelength regimes are chosen to match the absorption lines of oxygen gas and water vapour. The dual-wavelength laser source is realised by combining two External Cavity (EC) lasers on a SiN platform. In particular, each of these EC lasers is formed by butt-coupling a SiN resonant mirror to a reflecting semiconductor gain chip that results in highly monochromatic source (10MHz) to match the narrow absorption lines of the gases. Ultimately, this SiN based dual-wavelength source will have applications in the field of biomedical for continuous monitoring of oxygen in body cavities.
Mach-Zehnder (MZ) modulators in Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) are key components for integrated silicon photonic devices. Reducing their energy dissipation is a crucial step for applications of silicon photonics, especially in large data centers. In this work, we combine band-edge slow light structures consisting of silicon waveguide gratings with a periodic (interleaved) p-n junction. The slow-light structures consist of a waveguide grating with wide/narrow sections realized in a 300-nm thick silicon layer, on top of an unetched silicon layer of 50 to 150 nm thickness, fully embedded in SiO2. The grating gives rise to a photonic stop band and to a slow-light region close to the lowest band edge. The profile of the p-n junction varies periodically along the waveguide with interleaved n and p regions. This structure maximizes the spatial overlap between the optical mode and the depletion regions, yielding a further improvement of modulator efficiency beyond the slow-light effect.
---
Under an applied reverse bias, the silicon refractive index is modified by the plasma dispersion effect, thus the waveguide grating acts as a phase shifter. The modulator efficiency VpiLpi is strongly improved in comparison with modulators without slow light or with a lateral p-n junction. Thanks to the optimized overlap between electric field and depletion regions, this improvement takes place over a spectral interval that is much larger than the slow-light bandwidth. Insertion losses due to free carriers are also lower than in conventional modulators. The advantage of combining slow-light grating waveguides with an interleaved p-n junction is especially pronounced at low driving voltage (of the order of 1V), where the dissipated energy can be as low as 0.4 pJ/bit over an optical bandwidth of several 10 nm. Thus, the present modulator structure is promising in view of realizing integrated MZ modulators with low power dissipation.
KEYWORDS: Raman spectroscopy, Lab on a chip, Signal to noise ratio, Optical fibers, Remote sensing, Spectrometers, Chemical analysis, Raman scattering, Molecules, Molecular spectroscopy
Raman spectroscopy (RS) is a non-destructive analytical technique, that provides a unique fingerprint of molecules with high accuracy. It proves to be a reliable and practical alternative to chemical analysis, allowing sample identification without the use of reagents. This label-free technique finds applications in quality control and in-line process monitoring, however, like any other technique RS also presents its challenges such as expensive and delicate instrumentation and complex design, which often confines the technique to the laboratory. In order to address these challenges, a 3D printed Lab-On-Chip (LOC) was fabricated and assembled with four channel optical fibres, which will collect the Raman scattering. The performance of our Raman Probe on Chip is evaluated using Isopropanol alcohol (IPA) as a validation sample.
Slow light photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) have been the subject of intensive study due to their potential for on-chip applications such as optical buffers and the enhancement of nonlinear phenomenon. However, due to high group velocity mismatch between the strip waveguide and the slow light waveguide efficient coupling of light is challenging. The coupling efficiency is also very sensitive to the truncation at the interface between the two waveguides. This sensitivity can be removed and light can efficiently be coupled from the strip waveguide to the slow light waveguide by adding an intermediate photonic crystal waveguide (or coupler) that operates
at a group index of ∼ 5. Several designs have been proposed for couplers to obtain higher coupling efficiency
within the desired group index range. We have studied uniaxial stretched couplers in which the lattice constant
is stretched in the direction of propagation by 10-50 nm in the coupler region. Using a Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) Simulation Method that allows the extraction of the group index, we have observed 8.5 dB improvement in the coupling efficiency at the group index of 30. Efficient coupling is dominantly determined by the band edge position of the coupler region and maximum transmission efficiency is limited by the maximum transmission of the coupler PCW. If the band edge of coupler PCW is sufficiently red shifted relative to the band edge of the slow light PCW then higher coupling efficiency can be achieved.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.