Extraordinary evanescent field confinement waveguide sensor for mid-infrared trace gas spectroscopy

Marek Vlk; Anurup Datta; Sebastián Alberti; Henock Demessie Yallew; Vinita Mittal; Ganapathy Senthil Murugan; Jana Jágerská

doi:10.1038/s41377-021-00470-4

Go to Nature Website

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Extraordinary evanescent field confinement waveguide sensor for mid-infrared trace gas spectroscopy

Letters

- Extraordinary evanescent field confinement waveguide sensor for mid-infrared trace gas spectroscopy
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 10, Issue 2, Pages: 147-153(2021)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.Department of Physics and Technology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway, NO-9037 Tromsø, Norway
  2.Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
- Author bio：
  
  Ganapathy Senthil Murugan (smg@orc.soton.ac.uk)
  Jana Jágerská (jana.jagerska@uit.no)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-021-00470-4
  CLC：
- Published：2021，
  
  Published Online：29 January 2021，
  
  Received：19 May 2020，
  
  Revised：06 January 2021，
  
  Accepted：12 January 2021
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Vlk, M. et al. Extraordinary evanescent field confinement waveguide sensor for mid-infrared trace gas spectroscopy. Light: Science & Applications, 10, 147-153 (2021).
DOI：

Vlk, M. et al. Extraordinary evanescent field confinement waveguide sensor for mid-infrared trace gas spectroscopy. Light: Science & Applications, 10, 147-153 (2021). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-021-00470-4.

摘要

Abstract

Nanophotonic waveguides are at the core of a great variety of optical sensors. These structures confine light along defined paths on photonic chips and provide light-matter interaction via an evanescent field. However

waveguides still lag behind free-space optics for sensitivity-critical applications such as trace gas detection. Short optical pathlengths

low interaction strengths

and spurious etalon fringes in spectral transmission are among the main reasons why on-chip gas sensing is still in its infancy. In this work

we report on a mid-infrared integrated waveguide sensor that successfully addresses these drawbacks. This sensor operates with a 107% evanescent field confinement factor in air

which not only matches but also outperforms free-space beams in terms of the per-length optical interaction. Furthermore

negligible facet reflections result in a flat spectral background and record-low absorbance noise that can finally compete with free-space spectroscopy. The sensor performance was validated at 2.566 μm

which showed a 7 ppm detection limit for acetylene with only a 2 cm long waveguide.

关键词

Keywords

references

McManus, J. B. et al. Application of quantum cascade lasers to high-precision atmospheric trace gas measurements.Optical Eng.49, 111124 (2010)..

Tuzson, B. et al. Selective measurements of NO, NO2and NOyin the free troposphere using quantum cascade laser spectroscopy.Atmos. Meas. Tech.6, 927-936 (2013)..

Hodgkinson, J.&Tatam, R. P. Optical gas sensing: a review.Meas. Sci. Technol.24, 012004 (2013)..

Werle, P., Mücke, R.&Slemr, F. The limits of signal averaging in atmospheric trace-gas monitoring by tunable diode-laser absorption spectroscopy (TDLAS).Appl. Phys. B.57, 131-139 (1993)..

Mahaffy, P. R. et al. The sample analysis at mars investigation and instrument suite.Space Sci. Rev.170, 401-478 (2012)..

Lai, W. C. et al. On-chip methane sensing by near-IR absorption signatures in a photonic crystal slot waveguide.Opt. Lett.36, 984-986 (2011)..

Dicaire, I. et al. Probing molecular absorption under slow-light propagation using a photonic crystal waveguide.Opt. Lett.37, 4934-4936 (2012)..

Tombez, L. et al. Methane absorption spectroscopy on a silicon photonic chip.Optica4, 1322-1325 (2017)..

Ranacher, C. et al. Characterization of evanescent field gas sensor structures based on silicon photonics.IEEE Photonics J.10, 2700614 (2018)..

Ranacher, C. et al. Mid-infrared absorption gas sensing using a silicon strip waveguide.Sens. Actuators A: Phys.277, 117-123 (2018)..

Ottonello-Briano, F. et al. Carbon dioxide absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared silicon photonic waveguide.Opt. Lett.45, 109-112 (2020)..

Beshkov, G. et al. IR and Raman absorption spectroscopic studies of APCVD, LPCVD and PECVD thin SiN films.Vacuum69, 301-305 (2002)..

Bright, T. J. et al. Infrared optical properties of amorphous and nanocrystalline Ta2O5thin films.J. Appl. Phys.114, 083515 (2013)..

Zhang, E. J. et al. Adaptive etalon suppression technique for long-term stability improvement in high index contrast waveguide-based laser absorption spectrometers.Electron. Lett.55, 851-853 (2019)..

Visser, T. D. et al. Confinement factors and gain in optical amplifiers.IEEE J. Quantum Electron.33, 1763-1766 (1997)..

Parriaux, O. et al. Evanescent wave sensor of sensitivity larger than a free space wave.Opt. Quantum Electron.32, 909-921 (2000)..

Veldhuis, G. J. et al. Sensitivity enhancement in evanescent optical waveguide sensors.J. Lightwave Technol.18, 677-682 (2000)..

Robinson, J. T. et al. First-principle derivation of gain in high-index-contrast waveguides.Opt. Express16, 16659-16669 (2008)..

Zou, Y. et al. Experimental demonstration of propagation characteristics of mid-infrared photonic crystal waveguides in silicon-on-sapphire.Opt. Express23, 6965-6975 (2015)..

Frederico, S. et al. Silicon sacrificial layer dry etching (SSLDE) for free-standing RF MEMS architectures. InProc.Sixteenth Annual International Conference on Micro Electro Mechanical Systems. pp. 570-573 (IEEE, Kyoto, Japan, 2003)..

Williams, K. R., Gupta, K.&Wasilik, M. Etch rates for micromachining processing-Part II.J. Microelectromech. Syst.12, 761-778 (2003)..

Arana, L. R. et al. Isotropic etching of silicon in fluorine gas for MEMS micromachining.J. Micromech. Microeng.17, 384-392 (2007)..

Ghaderi, M.&Wolffenbuttel, R. F. Design and fabrication of ultrathin silicon-nitride membranes for use in UV-visible airgap-based MEMS optical filters.J. Phys. : Conf. Ser.757, 012032 (2016)..

Chaneliere, C. et al. Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) thin films for advanced dielectric applications.Mater. Sci. Eng. : R: Rep.22, 269-322 (1998)..

Singh, S. et al. Universal method for the fabrication of detachable ultrathin films of several transition metal oxides.ACS Nano2, 2363-2373 (2008)..

Lee, C. C. et al. An apparatus for the measurement of internal stress and thermal expansion coefficient of metal oxide films.Rev. Sci. Instrum.72, 2128-2133 (2001)..

Wu, C. -L. et al. Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) based athermal micro-ring resonator.OSA Contin.2, 1198-1206 (2019)..

Kulisch, W. et al. InNanostructured Materials for Advanced Technological Applications(eds Reithmaier, J. P. et al. ) (Springer, 2009).

Saygin-Hinczewski, D. et al. Optical and structural properties of Ta2O5-CeO2thin films.Sol. Energy Mater. Sol. Cells91, 1726-1732 (2007)..

Sharpe, S. W. et al. Gas-phase databases for quantitative infrared spectroscopy.Appl. Spectrosc.58, 1452-1461 (2004)..

Mittal, V. et al. Optical quality ZnSe films and low loss waveguides on Si substrates for mid-infrared applications.Optical Mater. Express7, 712-725 (2017)..

Lin, H. T. et al. Mid-infrared integrated photonics on silicon: a perspective.Nanophotonics7, 393-420 (2017)..

Demtröder, W. InLaser SpectroscopyVol. 5, 1st edition (ed. Demtröder, W. ) (Springer, 1981).

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

No data

Related Author

No data

Related Institution

No data

⁰