A Silicon-on-Insulator Photonic Wire Based Evanescent Field Sensor

Author

Densmore, A. ; Xu, D.X. ; Waldron, P. ; Janz, S. ; Cheben, P. ; Lapointe, J. ; Delage, A. ; Lamontagne, B. ; Schmid, J.H. ; Post, E.

Author_Institution

Inst. for Microstructural Sci., Nat. Res. Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ont.

Volume

18

Issue

23

fYear

2006

Firstpage

2520

Lastpage

2522

Abstract

We demonstrate a new, highly sensitive evanescent field sensor using silicon-on-insulator (SOI) photonic wire waveguides. Theoretical analysis shows that thin SOI waveguides can provide higher sensitivity over devices based in all other common planar waveguide material systems for the probing of both thin adsorbed biomolecular layers and bulk homogeneous solutions. A Si photonic wire waveguide was incorporated into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer based sensor, configured to monitor the index change of a homogeneous solution. High effective index change of 0.31 per refractive index unit (RIU) change of the solution was measured, confirming theoretical predictions

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; nanotechnology; optical planar waveguides; optical sensors; refractive index; silicon-on-insulator; Mach-Zehnder interferometer based sensor; biomolecular layers; effective index change; evanescent field sensor; planar waveguide; refractive index unit; silicon-on-insulator photonic wire; thin SOI waveguides; Biological materials; Biosensors; Monitoring; Optoelectronic and photonic sensors; Planar waveguides; Refractive index; Silicon on insulator technology; Waveguide theory; Waveguide transitions; Wire; Biomedical transducers; integrated optics; nano technology; silicon-on-insulator technology;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2006.887374

Filename

4032846