Slot Waveguide Ring-Assisted Mach–Zehnder Interferometer for Sensing Applications

We experimentally demonstrate a ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer (RAMZI) design with slot waveguides for bulk index sensing using sucrose solution. Devices were implemented with both directional couplers (DCs) and multimode interferometer couplers (MMIs). The RAMZI designs with DCs were found to have a sensitivity of 203.3 ± 15.3 nm/RIU, while 177.2 ± 12.0 nm/ RIU was demonstrated with MMIs-coupled RAMZI. The free spectral ranges (FSRs) of DCs and MMIs-coupled RAMZI were measured to be 24.3 and 34.3 nm, respectively. The FSRs demonstrated can be as wide as 7.9 times larger than the equivalent microring resonator.

[1]  P. Bienstman,et al.  Label-Free Biosensing With a Slot-Waveguide-Based Ring Resonator in Silicon on Insulator , 2009, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[2]  P. Dumon,et al.  Nanophotonic waveguides in silicon-on-insulator fabricated with CMOS technology , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[3]  Shanhui Fan,et al.  Ring-coupled Mach-Zehnder interferometer optimized for sensing. , 2009, Applied Optics.

[4]  Siegfried Janz,et al.  High bandwidth SOI photonic wire ring resonators using MMI couplers. , 2007, Optics express.

[5]  Sailing He,et al.  Highly sensitive sensor based on an ultra-high-Q Mach-Zehnder interferometer-coupled microring , 2009 .

[6]  D. Gill,et al.  Optical sensing of biomolecules using microring resonators , 2006, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[7]  R. Baets,et al.  Silicon-on-Insulator microring resonator for sensitive and label-free biosensing. , 2007, Optics express.

[8]  H. Kogelnik.  Theory of Optical Waveguides , 1988 .

[9]  Silicon MMI-Coupled Slotted Conventional and MZI Racetrack Microring Resonators , 2013, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[10]  D. Dai,et al.  Highly sensitive Si nanowire-based optical sensor using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer coupled microring. , 2010, Optics letters.

[11]  M. Sumetsky,et al.  Optimization of optical ring resonator devices for sensing applications. , 2007, Optics letters.

[12]  Slotted silicon microring resonators with multimode interferometer couplers , 2013, 10th International Conference on Group IV Photonics.

[13]  Winnie N. Ye,et al.  Silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer racetrack microring for sensing , 2014, Photonics West - Optoelectronic Materials and Devices.

[14]  A. Delage,et al.  Folded cavity SOI microring sensors for high sensitivity and real time measurement of biomolecular binding. , 2008, Optics express.