Chip-scale full-Stokes spectropolarimeter in silicon photonic circuits

Abstract

Wavelength-dependent polarization state of light carries crucial information about light-matter interactions. However, its measurement is limited to bulky, energy-consuming devices, which prohibits many modern, portable applications. Here, we propose and demonstrate a chip-scale spectropolarimeter implemented using a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics technology. Four compact Vernier microresonator spectrometers are monolithically integrated with a broadband polarimeter consisting of a 2D nanophotonic antenna and a polarimetric circuit to achieve full-Stokes spectropolarimetric analysis. The proposed device offers a solid-state spectropolarimetry solution with a small footprint of 1 × 0.6 mm 2 and low power consumption of 360 mW. Full-Stokes spectral detection across a broad spectral range of 50 nm with a resolution of 1 nm is demonstrated in characterizing a material possessing structural chirality. The proposed device may enable a broader application of spectropolarimetry in the fields ranging from biomedical diagnostics and chemical analysis to observational astronomy.

Silicon Channeled Spectropolarimeter for On‐Chip Single‐Detector Stokes Spectroscopy

“…Figure 4b compares the measured results that were obtained using a commercial optical spectrum analyzer (black line) and the fabricated VDMS (red line). The small discrepancy is due to fluctuations in the resonance position caused by fluctuations in the temperature, [ 16 ] which can be improved by adding an integrated temperature sensor to calibrate the temperature fluctuation.…”

“…This unique feature of a single spectral measurement significantly simplifies the optical system. Nevertheless, unlike the general type spectropolarimeter which has come into the chip level, [ 16 ] the on‐chip CSP devices have never been reported because its architecture is difficult to be realized by integrated optics.…”

Ultrahigh-resolution on-chip spectrometer with silicon photonic resonators

“…One is using dispersive elements and the other one is using the spectral reconstruction method. For dispersive spectrometers, the key is the dispersive element, such as arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWGs) 6,7 , etched diffraction gratings (EDGs) 8−10 , and arrayed microrings 11 . For AWG/EDG spectrometers, it is usually difficult to achieve high-performance silicon AWGs/ EDGs with very narrow channel spacings and thus the spectrometer resolution is usually limited to be around 0.2 nm or more 6,8,9 .…”

On‐Chip High‐Speed Coherent Optical Signal Detection Based on Photonic Spin‐Hall Effect

“…[8,9] Polarization analysis has recently been implemented in integrated nanophotonic devices compatible with a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology and complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processing. [10][11][12][13][14][15][16] However, for coherent optical communications, the high-speed polarization state detection is needed, requiring minimal resonant signal delay in the nanophotonic circuit for the polarization measurements. On-chip nanophotonic devices for polarization characterization may be based on plasmonic nanoantennas, metasurfaces, and spin-orbit interactions.…”