High resolution and wide dynamic range pressure sensor based on two-dimensional photonic crystal

Abstract

The authors present a new design of high resolution and wide dynamic range photonic crystal pressure sensor. This sensor is based on two-dimensional photonic crystal with square array of silicon rods surrounded by air. The sensor consists of a photonic crystal waveguide which is coupled to a photonic crystal nanocavity. The waveguide is configured by removing one row of Si rods and nanocavity is formed by modifying the radius of one Si rod. The sensor is designed for 1300 nm–1400 nm wavelengths. Simulation results show that resonant wavelength of nanocavity is linearly shifted to larger wavelengths by increasing the pressure. The designed sensor has a linear behavior between 0.1 GPa to 10 GPa of applied pressure and 8 nm/GPa of pressure sensitivity.

Keywords

Photonic crystal / waveguide / nanocavity / pressure sensor

References

[1] Joannopoulos J. D., Johnson S. G., Winn J. N., Meade R. D.. Photonic crystals molding the flow of light, 2007, New Jersey, USA: Princeton University Press

[2] Olyaee S., Taghipour F.. Design of new square-lattice photonic crystal fibers for optical communication applications. Int. J. Physical Sci., 2011, 6(18): 4405-4411.

[3] Fatih M., Fan Y.. High-contrast all-optical bistable switching in photonic crystal microcavities. Appl. Phys. Lett., 2003, 83(14): 6

[4] S. Olyaee and F. Taghipour, “Ultra-flattened dispersion photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss,” in the 11th International Conference on Telecommunications, ConTEL, Graz University of Technology, Austria, June 15–17, pp. 531–534, 2011.

[5] Olyaee S., Taghipour F.. A new design of photonic crystal fiber with ultra-flattened dispersion to simultaneously minimize the dispersion and confinement loss. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, The 3rd International Photonics and OptoElectronics Meeting (POEM2010), Wuhan, China, 2011, 276(1): 012080.

[6] K. Radulović, Z. Jakšić, and Z. Djurić, “Design and simulation of stressed 2D photonic crystals by finite element method,” in Proc. II International Symposium Light Metals and Composite Materials, Belgrade, May 19–20, pp. 99–101, 2004.

[7] Xu Z., Cao L., Su P., He Q., Jin G., Gu G.. Micro-displacement sensor with large dynamic range based on photonic crystal co-directional coupler. IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronic, 2007, 43(2): 182-186.

[8] Shi J., Hsiao V. S., Walker T. R., Huang T. J.. Humidity sensing based on nanoporous polymeric photonic crystals. Sensors and Actuators B, 2008, 129(1): 391-396.

[9] Sun J., Chan C. C.. Photonic bandgap fiber for refractive index measurement. Sensors and Actuators B, 2007, 128(1): 46-50.

[10] Nair R. V., Vijaya R.. Photonic crystal sensors: an overview. Progress in Quantum Electronics, 2010, 34(3): 89-134.

[11] Stomeo T., Grande M., Qualtieri A., Passaseo A., Salhi A., De Vittorio M., Biallo D.. Fabrication of force sensors based on two-dimensional photonic crystal technology. Microelectronic Engineering, 2007, 84(5–8): 1450-1453.

[12] Mai T. T., Hsiao F., Lee C., Xiang W., Chen C., Choi W. K.. Optimization and comparison of photonic crystal resonators for silicon microcantilever sensor. Sensors and Actuators A, 2011, 165(1): 16-25.

[13] Huang M.. Stress effects on the performance of optical waveguides. Internat. J. Solids and Struct., 2003, 40(7): 1615-1632.

[14] Johnson S. G., Villeneuve P. R., Fan S., Joannopoulos J. D.. Linear waveguides in photonic-crystal slabs. Physical Review B, 2000, 62(12): 8212-8222.

[15] Loncar M., Doll T., Vuckovic J., Scherer A.. Design and fabrication of silicon photonic crystal optical waveguides. J. Lightwave Technology, 2000, 18(10): 1402-1411.