No abstract

In this study, the sensitivity and the linearity of the un-coated and TiO 2 -coated microfiber knot resonator (MKR) have been analyzed. The MKR is very sensitive to humidity changes since its refractive index is strongly humidity dependent. As a result, shifts occur in the resonance wavelength and there are also changes in output power. The un-coated MKR showed a sensitivity of 1.3 pm/%RH, in terms of the resonance wavelength, and a sensitivity of 0.0626 dB/%RH for the transmitted output power. The sensitivity increased greatly after the deposition of a porous TiO 2 nanoparticle coating on the MKR. The TiO 2 -coated MKR showed an improved sensitivity of 2.5 pm/%RH, with respect to the resonance wavelength, and 0.0836 dB/%RH for the transmitted output power. This MKR sensor has the potential for use in a variety of humidity sensing applications.

In recent years, newly emerging photovoltaic (PV) devices based on silicon nanowire solar cells (SiNW-SCs) have attracted considerable research attention. This is due to their efficient light-trapping capability and large carrier transportation and collection with compact size. However, there is a strong desire to find effective strategies to provide high and wideband optical absorption. In this paper, a modified circular nanowire (NW) with a nanocrescent hole is newly introduced and analyzed for solar cell applications. The crescent hole can strongly improve the light absorption through the NW due to the excitation of numbers of modes that can be coupled with the incident light. The material index, volume, and position of the nanohole are studied to significantly increase the optical absorption efficiency and hence the power conversion efficiency (PCE). The absorption performance can be further preserved by using a silicon substrate due to the coupling between the supported modes by the NW, and that of the substrate. The optical and electrical characteristics of the suggested design are investigated using finite difference time domain and finite element methods via Lumerical software packages. The reported asymmetric design offers higher optical and electrical efficiencies compared to the conventional NW counterpart. The proposed NW offers a short circuit current density (Jsc) of 33.85 (34.35) mA/cm2 and power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 16.78 (17.05) % with an enhancement of 16.3 (16.8) % and 17.3 (18.4) % for transverse magnetic (TM) and transverse electric (TE) polarizations, respectively, compared to the conventional cylindrical counterpart.

In the past decades, silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have been considered as a promising approach to solve the bandwidth bottleneck in optical communications and interconnections. Despite significant advances, large-scale PICs still face a series of technical challenges, such as footprint, power consumption, and routing state storage, resulting from the active tuning methods used to control the optical waves. These challenges can be partially addressed by combining chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs) such as Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) with silicon photonics, especially applicable in switching applications due to the nonvolatile nature of the GST. Although GST phase transitions between amorphous and crystalline states actuated by optical and electrical pulses heating have been experimentally demonstrated, there is no direct comparison between them. We carried out simulations and experiments to systematically investigate the difference in the phase change process induced by optical and electrical pulses for two types of Si-GST hybrid waveguides. For the phase transition induced by optical pulses, the device has a clear advantage in terms of power consumption and operation speed. For the phase transition induced by electrical pulses, the device is suitable for large-scale integration because it does not require complex light routing. It helps us better understand the phase change process and push forward the further development of Si-GST hybrid integration platform, bringing in new potential applications.