Silicon photonic crystal nanostructures for refractive index sensing

Dominic Dorfner, T. Hürlimann, T. Zabel, Lars Hagedorn Frandsen, G. Abstreiter, J.J. Finley

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    Abstract

    The authors present the fabrication and optical investigation of Silicon on Insulator photonic crystal drop-filters for use as refractive index sensors. Two types of defect nanocavities (L3 and H1-r) are embedded between two W1 photonic crystal waveguides to evanescently route light at the cavity mode frequency between input and output waveguides. Optical characterization of the structures in air and various liquids demonstrate detectivities in excess of n=n = 0:018 and n=n = 0:006 for the H1-r and L3 cavities, respectively. The measured cavity-frequencies and detector refractive index responsivities are in good agreement with simulations, demonstrating that the method provides a background free transducer signal with frequency selective addressing of a specic area of the sensor chip.
    Original languageEnglish
    JournalApplied Physics Letters
    Volume93
    Issue number18
    Pages (from-to)181103
    ISSN0003-6951
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2008

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright (2008) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics.

    Keywords

    • refractive index measurement
    • nanostructured materials
    • refractometers
    • silicon-on-insulator
    • photonic band gap
    • optical materials
    • photonic crystals
    • optical sensors
    • optical waveguide filters

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