Henri Benisty

Toward real-world devices in InP-based PCs

Photonic crystals have seen major advances in the past few years in the optical range. The association of in-plane waveguiding and two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals (PCs) in thin-slab or waveguide structures leads to good 3D confinement with easy fabrication. Such structures, much easier to fabricate than 3D PCs, open many exciting opportunities in optoelectronic devices and integrated optics. We review the basics of these structures, with emphasis on basic properties and loss performance, as well as modeling tools, which show that 2D PCs etched through waveguides supported by substrates are a viable route to high-performance PC-based photonic integrated circuits (PICs). A companion paper by Benisty et al. in these proceedings illustrates further high performance building blocks and integrated devices.

Waveguide-excited fluorescence microarray

Signal-to-noise ratio is a crucial issue in microarray fluorescence read-out. Several strategies are proposed for its improvement. First, light collection in conventional microarrays scanners is quite limited. It was recently shown that almost full collection can be achieved in an integrated lens-free biosensor, with labelled species hybridizing practically on the surface of a sensitive silicon detector [L. Martinelli et al. Appl. Phys. Lett. 91, 083901 (2007)]. However, even with such an improvement, the ultimate goal of real-time measurements during hybridization is challenging: the detector is dazzled by the large fluorescence of labelled species in the solution. In the present paper we show that this unwanted signal can effectively be reduced if the excitation light is confined in a waveguide. Moreover, the concentration of excitation light in a waveguide results in a huge signal gain. In our experiment we realized a structure consisting of a high index sol-gel waveguide deposited on a low-index substrate. The fluorescent molecules deposited on the surface of the waveguide were excited by the evanescent part of a wave travelling in the guide. The comparison with free-space excitation schemes confirms a huge gain (by several orders of magnitude) in favour of waveguide-based excitation. An optical guide deposited onto an integrated biosensor thus combines both advantages of ideal light collection and enhanced surface localized excitation without compromising the imaging properties. Modelling predicts a negligible penalty from spatial cross-talk in practical applications. We believe that such a system would bring microarrays to hitherto unattained sensitivities.