Silicon Nitride Photonic Waveguide-Based Young's Interferometer for Molecular Sensing

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Delfan, Sahar, Khurana, Mohit, Yi, Zhenhuan, Sokolov, Alexei, Zheltikov, Aleksei M., Scully, Marlan O.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Delfan, Sahar
Khurana, Mohit
Yi, Zhenhuan
Sokolov, Alexei
Zheltikov, Aleksei M.
Scully, Marlan O.
author_facet Delfan, Sahar
Khurana, Mohit
Yi, Zhenhuan
Sokolov, Alexei
Zheltikov, Aleksei M.
Scully, Marlan O.
contents Devices based on photonic integrated circuits play a crucial role in the development of low-cost, high-performance, industry-scale manufacturable sensors. We report the design, fabrication, and application of a silicon nitride waveguide-based integrated photonic sensor in Young's interferometer configuration combined with Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging detection. We use a finite-difference time-domain method to analyze the performance of the sensor device and optimize the sensitivity of the fundamental transverse-electric (TE) mode. We develop a low-cost fabrication method for the photonic sensor chip, using photolithography-compatible dimensions, and produce the sensing region with wet-etching of silicon dioxide. We demonstrate the sensor's functioning by measuring the optical phase shift with glucose concentration in an aqueous solution. We obtain consistent interference patterns with fringe visibility exceeding 0.75 and measure the phase differences for glucose concentrations in the 10 ug/ml order, corresponding to the order of 10^7 molecules in the sensing volume. We envision extending this work to functionalized surface sensors based on molecular binding. Our work will impact biosensing applications and, more generally, the fabrication of interferometric-based photonic devices.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2409_02287
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Silicon Nitride Photonic Waveguide-Based Young's Interferometer for Molecular Sensing
Delfan, Sahar
Khurana, Mohit
Yi, Zhenhuan
Sokolov, Alexei
Zheltikov, Aleksei M.
Scully, Marlan O.
Optics
Applied Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
Devices based on photonic integrated circuits play a crucial role in the development of low-cost, high-performance, industry-scale manufacturable sensors. We report the design, fabrication, and application of a silicon nitride waveguide-based integrated photonic sensor in Young's interferometer configuration combined with Complementary Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor (CMOS) imaging detection. We use a finite-difference time-domain method to analyze the performance of the sensor device and optimize the sensitivity of the fundamental transverse-electric (TE) mode. We develop a low-cost fabrication method for the photonic sensor chip, using photolithography-compatible dimensions, and produce the sensing region with wet-etching of silicon dioxide. We demonstrate the sensor's functioning by measuring the optical phase shift with glucose concentration in an aqueous solution. We obtain consistent interference patterns with fringe visibility exceeding 0.75 and measure the phase differences for glucose concentrations in the 10 ug/ml order, corresponding to the order of 10^7 molecules in the sensing volume. We envision extending this work to functionalized surface sensors based on molecular binding. Our work will impact biosensing applications and, more generally, the fabrication of interferometric-based photonic devices.
title Silicon Nitride Photonic Waveguide-Based Young's Interferometer for Molecular Sensing
topic Optics
Applied Physics
Instrumentation and Detectors
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2409.02287