Naimei Tang

Silicon on-chip bandpass filters for the multiplexing of high sensitivity photonic crystal microcavity biosensors

A method for the dense integration of high sensitivity photonic crystal (PC) waveguide based biosensors is proposed and experimentally demonstrated on a silicon platform. By connecting an additional PC waveguide filter to a PC microcavity sensor in series, a transmission passband is created, containing the resonances of the PC microcavity for sensing purpose. With proper engineering of the passband, multiple high sensitivity PC microcavity sensors can be integrated into microarrays and be interrogated simultaneously between a single input and a single output port. The concept was demonstrated with a 2-channel L55 PC biosensor array containing PC waveguide filters. The experiment showed that the sensors on both channels can be monitored simultaneously from a single output spectrum. Less than 3 dB extra loss for the additional PC waveguide filter is observed.

Unique surface sensing property and enhanced sensitivity in microring resonator biosensors based on subwavelength grating waveguides

In this paper, unique surface sensing property and enhanced sensitivity in microring resonator biosensors based on subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguides are studied and demonstrated. The SWG structure consists of periodic silicon pillars in the propagation direction with a subwavelength period. Effective sensing region in the SWG microring resonator includes not only the top and side of the waveguide, but also the space between the silicon pillars on the light propagation path. It leads to greatly increased sensitivity and a unique surface sensing property in contrast to common evanescent wave sensors: the surface sensitivity remains constantly high as the surface layer thickness grows. Microring resonator biosensors based on both SWG waveguides and conventional strip waveguides were compared side by side in surface sensing experiment and the enhanced surface sensing capability in SWG based microring resonator biosensors was demonstrated.

Improving the detection limit for on-chip photonic sensors based on subwavelength grating racetrack resonators

Compared to the conventional strip waveguide microring resonators, subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguide microring resonators have better sensitivity and lower detection limit due to the enhanced photon-analyte interaction. As sensors, especially biosensors, are usually used in absorptive ambient environment, it is very challenging to further improve the detection limit of the SWG ring resonator by simply increasing the sensitivity. The high sensitivity resulted from larger mode-analyte overlap also brings significant absorption loss, which deteriorates the quality factor of the resonator. To explore the potential of the SWG ring resonator, we theoretically and experimentally optimize an ultrasensitive transverse magnetic mode SWG racetrack resonator to obtain maximum quality factor and thus lowest detection limit. A quality factor of 9800 around 1550 nm and sensitivity of 429.7 ± 0.4nm/RIU in water environment are achieved. It corresponds to a detection limit (λ/S·Q) of 3.71 × 10-4 RIU, which marks a reduction of 32.5% compared to the best value reported for SWG microring sensors.

Enhanced surface sensitivity in microring resonator biosensor based on subwavelength grating waveguides

Microring resonators on silicon-on-insulator substrate have been demonstrated to be promising in sensing applications. We study a microring resonator biosensor based on a novel subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguide structure, which consists of periodic silicon pillars in the propagation direction with a subwavelength period. In this structure, effective sensing region includes not only the top and side of the waveguide, but also the space in between the silicon pillars which is on the path of the propagation mode. This leads to greatly increased bulk refractive index sensitivity as well as extended surface sensing region with constantly high surface sensitivity.

Wide dynamic range sensing in photonic crystal microcavity biosensors

Typical L-type photonic crystal (PC) microcavities have a dynamic range of approximately 3-4 orders of magnitude in biosensing. We experimentally demonstrated that multiplexing of PC sensors with different geometry can achieve a wide dynamic range covering 6 orders of magnitude with potential for 8 or more orders with suitable optimization.

Ultralow-loss Waveguide Crossings for the Integration of Microfluidics and Optical Waveguide Sensors

Integrating photonic waveguide sensors with microfluidics is promising in achieving high-sensitivity and cost-effective biological and chemical sensing applications. One challenge in the integration is that an air gap would exist between the microfluidic channel and the photonic waveguide when the micro-channel and the waveguide intersect. The air gap creates a path for the fluid to leak out of the micro-channel. Potential solutions, such as oxide deposition followed by surface planarization, would introduce additional fabrication steps and thus are ineffective in cost. Here we propose a reliable and efficient approach for achieving closed microfluidic channels on a waveguide sensing chip. The core of the employed technique is to add waveguide crossings, i.e., perpendicularly intersecting waveguides, to block the etched trenches and prevent the fluid from leaking through the air gap. The waveguide crossings offer a smooth interface for microfluidic channel bonding while bring negligible additional propagation loss (0.024 dB/crossing based on simulation). They are also efficient in fabrication, which are patterned and fabricated in the same step with waveguides. We experimentally integrated microfluidic channels with photonic crystal (PC) microcavity sensor chips on silicon-on-insulator substrate and demonstrated leak-free sensing measurement with waveguide crossings. The microfluidic channel was made from polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and pressure bonded to the silicon chip. The tested flow rates can be varied from 0.2 μL/min to 200 μL/min. Strong resonances from the PC cavity were observed from the transmission spectra. The spectra also show that the waveguide crossings did not induce any significant additional loss or alter the resonances.

ultrasensitive spectroscopy based on photonic waveguides on Al2O3/SiO2 platform

Here a photonic waveguide on Al2O3/SiO2 platform is proposed to cover the 240~320 nm wavelength-range, which is of paramount significance in protein and nuclei acid quantification. Our optical waveguide increases path-length and overlap integration for light-matter interaction with proteins. The proposed system detects one order less proteins concentration as low as 12.5 μg/ml compared with NanoDropTM that detects <125 μg/ml. Also, a linear absorbance change up to protein concentration of 7500 μg/ml is experimentally attained which is based on the Beer-Lambert-law.

Integrated Al 2 O 3 waveguide for ultraviolet spectroscopy

Integrated photonic waveguides on Al<inf>2</inf>O<inf>3</inf>/SiO<inf>2</inf> platform are proposed to cover the 220∼320nm wavelength-range, which is of paramount significance in protein and nuclei acid quantification. The proposed system requires 500x less volume of solutions compared to conventional NanoDrop^™.

Low detection limit sensor based on subwavelength grating racetrack resonator

Subwavelength grating (SWG) ring resonators have demonstrated better sensitivity compared to the conventional silicon strip ring resonators due to the enhanced photon-analyte interaction. As the sensors are usually used in absorptive ambient environment, it is extreme challenging to further improve the sensitivity of the SWG ring resonator without deteriorating the quality factor because the coupling strength between the bus waveguide and the circular ring resonator is not sufficient to compensate the loss. To explore the full potential of the SWG ring resonator, we experimentally demonstrate a silicon-based high quality factor and low detection limit transverse magnetic (TM) mode SWG racetrack resonator around 1550 nm. A quality factor of 9800 is achieved in aqueous environment when the coupling length and gap are equal to 6.5 μm and 140 nm, respectively. The bulk sensitivity (S) is ~429.7 nm/RIU (refractive index per unit), and the intrinsic detection limit (iDL) is 3.71×10-4 RIU reduced by 32.5% compared to the best value reported for SWG microring sensors.

Silicon chip integrated photonic sensors for biological and chemical sensing

We experimentally demonstrate applications of photonic crystal waveguide based devices for on-chip optical absorption spectroscopy for the detection of chemical warfare simulant, triethylphosphate as well as applications with photonic crystal microcavity devices in the detection of biomarkers for pancreatic cancer in patient serum and cadmium metal ions in heavy metal pollution sensing. At mid-infrared wavelengths, we experimentally demonstrate the higher sensitivity of photonic crystal based structures compared to other nanophotonic devices such as strip and slot waveguides with detection down to 10ppm triethylphosphate. We also detected 5ppb (parts per billion) of cadmium metal ions in water at near-infrared wavelengths using established techniques for the detection of specific probe-target biomarker conjugation chemistries.