Grating coupler is one of the most basic integrated photonic components. Due to the excellent performance of compact non-mechanical beam steering, it has attracted a lot of research interest. Here we propose a new compound period grating coupler, which can couple the waveguide mode into two radiation modes with different angles by combining two grating structures with different periodicities. Therefore, the extra beam doubles the beam steering range. We numerically demonstrate this idea, and a steering range of 26.20 degree is observed within the wavelength tuning range of 1500 nm to 1600 nm. The compound period grating structure with DBRs (distributed Bragg reflectors) as the substrate has also been demonstrated numerically, and its energy leakage to the substrate is highly suppressed. Furthermore, investigation of fabrication tolerance shows the new structure can be fabricated with the current CMOS technology.
One of the major challenges for emerging planar subwavelength micro lens/metasurfaces is the significant chromatic behavior due to phase mismatch of subwavelength phase shifters. In this work, the continuous achromatic micro lens covering the whole visible wavelength is demonstrated for the first time based on relatively low index contrast gratings. Based on the unique chromatic phase shift behavior of polymer nano structure, we have designed and fabricated a broadband continuous subwavelength achromatic microlens that can cover 250 nm of visible bandwidths (from 435 nm to 685 nm) with focal shift less than 5%. Our works represent the first time to design, fabricate and characterize micro scale lens (7 microns in size) promising for compact integrated nanophotonic devices on chip. There are many advantages of using a polymer based micro lens such as easy fabrication on flexible substrate and potential applications including imaging, spectroscopy, lithography, laser fabrication and future integrated wearable devices.
We have proposed and demonstrated numerically an ultrasmall and highly sensitive plasmonic hydrogen sensor based on an integrated microring resonator, with a footprint size as small as 4×4 μm2. With a palladium (Pd) or platinum (Pt) hydrogen-sensitive layer coated on the inner surface of the microring resonator and the excitation of surface plasmon modes at the interface from the microring resonator waveguide, the device is highly sensitive to low hydrogen concentration variation, and the sensitivity is at least one order of magnitude larger than that of the optical fiber-based hydrogen sensor. We have also investigated the tradeoff between the portion coverage of the Pd/Pt layer and the sensitivity, as well as the width of the hydrogen-sensitive layer. This ultrasmall plasmonic hydrogen sensor holds promise for the realization of a highly compact sensor with integration capability for applications in hydrogen fuel economy.
Conventional subwavelength grating concentrating lenses are designed based on calculated phase overlap, wherein the phase change is fixed by the grating thickness, bar-width, and airgap, and therefore the focus. We found that certain concentration effects can still be maintained by changing the grating thickness with the same bar-widths and airgap dimensions. Following that, we discovered the existence of the grating thickness threshold; light concentration intensity spikes upon exceeding this limit. However, the light concentration property does not change continuously with respect to a steady increase in grating thickness. This observation indicates that there exists a concentration mode self-interference effect along the light propagation direction inside the gratings. Our results may provide guidance in designing and fabricating microlenses in a potentially more easy and controllable manner. Such approaches can be utilized in various integrated nanophotonics applications ranging from optical cavities and read/write heads to concentrating photovoltaics.
This work aims to reveal the strong influence of TiO2 nanostructures on the light absorption property of TiO2 and perovskite mixture. Three TiO2 nanostructures, i.e., nanoparticles (S1), ultrapure nanorods (S2), and ultrasmall nanorods (S3), were studied: S1 was selected as a baseline; S2 and S3 were synthesized from S1 by using modified hydrothermal processes. Mesoporous TiO2 thin films were spin-coated from solutions containing these TiO2 nanorods and nanoparticles (S1 as baseline). Organic–inorganic hybrid perovskite CH3NH3PbI3 was then incorporated into these mesoporous TiO2 thin films. Optical absorption results showed that the perovskite mixture with ultrasmall TiO2 nanostructures (S3) has significantly higher optical absorption coefficient. Finite-difference time domain models were built based on three distinct nanostructures of TiO2 and CH3NH3PbI3 mixtures fabricated (S1 to S3) to understand their optical absorption properties. Our work is promising to fabricate TiO2 nanostructures, as a backbone structure, for a series of applications including photovoltaics and photodetection.
We have demonstrated the significant impacts of grating tapered sidewall profile on the subwavelength grating wideband reflector characteristics when taking into account the practical fabrication process. Two different classes of wideband reflectors, referred to as zero-contrast gratings and high-contrast gratings, are numerically investigated in detail and the distinct differences of the impacts due to a grating tapered sidewall are observed. Our works reveal that this tapered sidewall profile plays a critical role in determining the reflection bandwidth, average reflectance, and the band edge. The results could be widely utilized in applications of a variety of nanophotonic devices and their integration, as well as facilitate the design of the fabrication process on how to control the degree of tapered sidewall profile for the integrated subwavelength grating nanophotonic devices.
Scintillators are important functional parts in x-ray and Υ-radiation medical imaging instruments, while the high refractive index of scintillation materials significantly reduced the light yield from the scintillators to the detectors, which limited acquired image quality. In this paper, we reviewed two ways to improve the light yield of scintillators via nano photonic devices based on different scintillation materials and integrated nano structures.
A new on-chip silicon-based Bragg cladding waveguide with full CMOS compatibility is developed. This novel optical waveguide has a low refractive index core (SiO2) surrounded by a 1D photonic crystal cladding. The cladding consists of several dielectric bilayers, where each bilayer consists of a high index-contrast pair of layers of Si and Si3N4. This new waveguide guides light based on omnidirectional reflection, reflecting light at any angle or polarization back into the core. Its fabrication is fully compatible with current microelectronics processes. In principle, a core of any low-index material can be realized with our novel structure, including air. Potential applications include tight turning radii, high power transmission, nonlinear properties engineering and biomaterials sensors on silicon chip.
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