Characterization of Evanescent Field Gas Sensor Structures Based on Silicon Photonics

Ranacher, Christian; Consani, Cristina; Vollert, N.; Tortschanoff, A.; Bergmeister, Markus; Grille, Thomas; Jakoby, Bernhard

doi:10.1109/jphot.2018.2866628

Cited by 52 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…We note that Ranacher et al [24,25] measured a Γ consistently higher than the simulated one. This might be caused by the absorption and subsequent release of CO 2 by the plastic tubing and chip case used in the experiments.…”

supporting

confidence: 38%

Carbon dioxide absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared silicon photonic waveguide

Ottonello-Briano¹,

Errando-Herranz²,

Rödjegård³

et al. 2019

Opt. Lett.

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Carbon dioxide is a vital gas for life on Earth, a waste product of human activities, and widely used in agriculture and industry. Its accurate sensing is therefore of great interest. Optical sensors exploiting the mid-infrared light absorption of CO 2 provide high selectivity, but their large size and high cost limit their use. Here, we demonstrate CO 2 gas sensing at 4.2 µm wavelength using an integrated silicon waveguide, featuring a sensitivity to CO 2 of 44 % that of freespace sensing. The suspended waveguide is fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator substrate by a single-lithography-step process, and we route it into a mid-infrared photonic circuit for on-chipreferenced gas measurements. Its demonstrated performance and its simple and scalable fabrication make our waveguide ideal for integration in miniaturized CO 2 sensors for distributed environmental monitoring, personal safety, medical, and high-volume consumer applications.Carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) is an atmospheric trace gas and, being the carbon source in the carbon cycle, it is vital to life on Earth. It is also a waste product of human activities and massively used in agriculture and industry. The atmospheric CO 2 concentration is growing at an ever increasing rate and reached 410 ppm in 2018 [1]. Besides affecting Earth's climate [2,3], elevated CO 2 levels increase air pollution mortality [4], and gross leakage of CO 2 puts personnel at risk of asphyxiation [5]. Indoors, high CO 2 levels deteriorate human cognitive function and decisionmaking [6][7][8], with consequences spanning from reduced attention and productivity in classrooms and offices [6,7] to an increased risk for car and airplane accidents [8]. Extensive and accurate sensing of CO 2 is therefore crucial.Optical CO 2 sensors would benefit most applications, due to their high selectivity, fast response, and minimal drift, compared to electrochemical and metal-oxide semiconductor-based sen-arXiv:1907.06967v1 [physics.app-ph]

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supporting

confidence: 38%

Carbon dioxide absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared silicon photonic waveguide

Ottonello-Briano¹,

Errando-Herranz²,

Rödjegård³

et al. 2019

Opt. Lett.

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“…Our approach is to use SiO2 and Si3N4 as materials for the lower cladding region of the waveguide. Recently we experimentally demonstrated silicon strip waveguides for CO2 sensing using two different platforms, i.e., silicon strip waveguides on a Si3N4 membrane [4] and on a solid (Si3N4)/SiO2 substructure [5]. In order to further improve the sensing performance of the waveguide structure, we aim to develop Si slot waveguides on SiO2 with a significantly higher evanescent field ratio compared to the strip waveguides that were used in our previous work.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Investigations of Infrared Slot Waveguides for Gas Sensing

et al. 2018

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Sensing of gases is a promising area for applications of photonic sensor devices that operate in the mid-infrared spectral range. We present a numerical investigation of slot waveguides for evanescent field sensing of CO2. The sensor platform is a poly-silicon slot waveguide on silicon dioxide, where both layers are deposited on a standard silicon substrate. The evanescent field ratio, which is a crucial parameter for the sensing performance of the waveguides, was determined and values as high as 42% were obtained.

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“…The noise-equivalent power (NEP) is obtained by measuring the noise level at 1 Hz bandwidth for our detection scheme with a sourcemeter (Keithley SMU 2450). Power levels for the VERD are higher since the light is irradiated by free-space rather than through a (slightly) absorptive waveguide [10]. Using an integrated detection scheme the NEP is expected to further improve for all detectors.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensitivity Comparison of Integrated Mid-Infrared Silicon-Based Photonic Detectors

et al. 2018

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Integrated silicon photonics in the mid-infrared is a promising platform for cheap and miniaturized chemical sensors, including gas and/or liquid sensors for environmental monitoring and the consumer electronics market. One major challenge in integrated photonics is the design of an integrated detector sensitive enough to detect minimal changes in light intensity resulting from, for example, the absorption by the analyte. Further complexity arises from the need to fabricate such detectors at a high throughput with high requirements on fabrication tolerances. Here we analyze and compare the sensitivity of three different chip-integrated detectors at a wavelength of 4.17 µm, namely a resistance temperature detector (RTD), a diode and a vertical-cavity enhanced resonant detector (VERD).

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Characterization of Evanescent Field Gas Sensor Structures Based on Silicon Photonics

Cited by 52 publications

References 20 publications

Carbon dioxide absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared silicon photonic waveguide

Carbon dioxide absorption spectroscopy with a mid-infrared silicon photonic waveguide

Numerical Investigations of Infrared Slot Waveguides for Gas Sensing

Sensitivity Comparison of Integrated Mid-Infrared Silicon-Based Photonic Detectors

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