SGER: Ultra-compact On-chip Spectrometers using Dispersion Engineering in Photonic Crystals

ECCS-0742063阿里·阿迪比，佐治亚州理工学院智力优势：这项研究的关键创新是通过PC中的最佳色散工程开发出具有所需色散和衍射性能的合成光学材料。这将通过在单个结构中结合PC的多种独特的色散特性来实现。最佳色散工程将允许开发新型的微型光谱仪和PC干涉仪，尽管其尺寸只有几百微米，但具有优异的传感性能。完整的集成光谱仪模块是通过添加最佳模式转换器(或匹配级)将这些不同功能(基于超棱镜的光谱仪和PC干涉仪)优化集成在单个基板上实现的。这种异质结构的PC将为不断增长的集成芯片级光谱需求提供最佳解决方案，特别是在传感应用方面。预期的性能改进(光谱特征检测的准确性、结构的大小等)比现有的PC光谱仪的实现要高出1-2个数量级。更广泛的影响：虽然这项提案的重点是开发超紧凑型片上光谱仪，但这里提出的两项主要任务的结果也将有利于其他应用。例如，第二个PC频段的使用可以显著提高PC波长解复用器的性能，本研究的结果可以在优化过程中进行一些修改。另一个例子是将PC干涉仪直接用于传感应用，其中感兴趣的分析物的存在改变了输出空间光谱模式，该模式可被测量并用于估计分析物的性质。本提案中定义的光子晶体结构有望在片上光学传感系统中引发一场革命。色散工程的概念可以扩展到三维(3D)PC结构，以开发用于自由空间光学应用的紧凑型器件。

ECCS-0742063Ali Adibi, Georgia Institute of TechnologyIntellectual Merits: The key innovation in this research is the development of synthetic optical materials with desired dispersive and diffractive properties through optimal dispersion engineering in PCs. This will be enabled by combining multiple unique dispersive properties of PCs in a single structure. The optimal dispersion engineering will allow for the development of novel microspectrometers and PC interferometers with excellent performance for sensing, despite having dimensions in the order of only a few hundred microns. The complete integrated spectrometer module is realized by optimal integration of these different functionalities (superprism-based spectrometers and PC interferometers) in a single substrate through the addition of optimal mode converters (or matching stages). Such heterostructure PCs will offer the best solution to the everincreasing demand for integrated chip-scale spectroscopy, especially for sensing applications. The expected performance improvement (accuracy in spectral feature detection, size of the structure, etc.) over existing implementations of the PC spectrometers will be 1-2 orders of magnitude. Broader Impacts: While the focus in this proposal is the development of ultra-compact on-chip spectrometers, the results of the two major tasks proposed here will be beneficial for other applications as well. For example, the use of the second PC band can dramatically improve the performance of the PC wavelength demultiplexers for which the findings of this research can be used with some modifications during optimization. Another example is the use of PC interferometers directly for sensing applications in which the presence of the analyte of interest changes the output spatial-spectral pattern, which can be measured and used for the estimation of the properties of the analyte. The photonic crystal structures as defined in this proposal have the prospect of creating a revolution in on-chip optical sensing systems. The concept of dispersion engineering in PCs can be extended to three-dimensional (3D) PC structures for the development of compact devices for free-space optics applications.