Plasmonic nanostructure enhanced graphene-based photodetectors

Graphene exhibits electrical and optical properties promising for future applications in ultra-fast photonics[1]. High carrier mobility and Fermi velocity[2, 3] combined with its constant absorption over the visible wavelength range to the near-infrared[4] potentially allow its application for photodetection over a broad wavelength spectrum, operating at high frequencies. However, absorption being 2.3% per monolayer[4], responsiv-ity of these devices is rather low[5, 6]. Here we show that by combining graphene-based photodetectors with metal-nanostructures, plasmonic effects lead to an increased respon-sivity. © 2011 by the Author(s); licensee Accademia Peloritana dei Pericolanti, Messina, Italy.

A printable optical time-temperature integrator based on shape memory in a chiral nematic polymer network

An optical and irreversible temperature sensor (e.g., a time-temperature integrator) is reported based on a mechanically embossed chiral-nematic polymer network. The polymer consists of a chemical and a physical (hydrogen-bonded) network and has a reflection band in the visible wavelength range. The sensors are produced by mechanical embossing at elevated temperatures. A relative large compressive deformation (up to 10%) is obtained inducing a shift to shorter wavelength of the reflection band (>30 nm). After embossing, a temperature sensor is obtained that exhibits an irreversible optical response. A permanent color shift to longer wavelengths (red) is observed upon heating of the polymer material to temperatures above the glass transition temperature. It is illustrated that the observed permanent color shift is related to shape memory in the polymer material. The films can be printed on a foil, thus showing that these sensors are potentially interesting as time-temperature integrators for applications in food and pharmaceutical products. Copyright © 2013 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Reusable, robust, and accurate laser-generated photonic nanosensor.

Developing noninvasive and accurate diagnostics that are easily manufactured, robust, and reusable will provide monitoring of high-risk individuals in any clinical or point-of-care environment. We have developed a clinically relevant optical glucose nanosensor that can be reused at least 400 times without a compromise in accuracy. The use of a single 6 ns laser (λ = 532 nm, 200 mJ) pulse rapidly produced off-axis Bragg diffraction gratings consisting of ordered silver nanoparticles embedded within a phenylboronic acid-functionalized hydrogel. This sensor exhibited reversible large wavelength shifts and diffracted the spectrum of narrow-band light over the wavelength range λpeak ≈ 510-1100 nm. The experimental sensitivity of the sensor permits diagnosis of glucosuria in the urine samples of diabetic patients with an improved performance compared to commercial high-throughput urinalysis devices. The sensor response was achieved within 5 min, reset to baseline in ∼10 s. It is anticipated that this sensing platform will have implications for the development of reusable, equipment-free colorimetric point-of-care diagnostic devices for diabetes screening.

Single mode operation of a Fabry-Perot laser locked by a tunable laser

In this article, the single mode operation of a Fabry-Perot laser (FP-LD) subject to the optical injection from a tunable laser is investigated. The maximum side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) is 53 dB, and the locked wavelength range is about 46 nm, which can cover 58 International Telecommunication Union (ITU) wavelengths with 100 GHz spacing or 115 ITU wavelengths with 50 GHz spacing for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) system. In the wavelength range front 1535 to 1569 nm, the SMSR is over 46 dB, and the frequency response of the injection-locked FP-LD can be improved with the proper wavelength detuning. (c) 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI

A photonic wire-based directional coupler based on SOI was fabricated by e-beam lithography (EBL) and the inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching method. The size of the sub-micron waveguide is 0.34 mu m x 0.34 mu m, and the length in the coupling region and the separation between the two parallel waveguides are 410 and 0.8 mu m, respectively. The measurement results are in good agreement with the results simulated by 3D finite-difference time-domain method. The transmission power from two output ports changed reciprocally with about 23 nm wavelength spacing between the coupled and direct ports. The extinction ratio of the device was between 5 and 10 dB, and the insertion loss of the device in the wavelength range 1520-1610 nm was between 22 and 24 dB, which included an about 18.4 +/- 0.4 dB coupling loss between the taper fibers and the polished sides of the device. (c) 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Narrow line-width resonant cavity enhanced photodetectors operating at 1.55 mu m

A method for fabrication of long-wavelength narrow line-width InGaAs resonant cavity enhanced (RCE) photodetectors in a silicon substrate operating at the wavelength range of 1.3-1.6 mu m has been developed. A full width at half maximum (FWHM) of 0.7 nm and a peak responsivity of 0. 16 A/W at the resonance wavelength of 1.55 mu m have been accomplished by using a thick InP layer as part of the resonant cavity. The effects of roughness and tilt of the InP layer surface, and its free carrier absorption, as well as the thickness deviation of the mirror pair on the resonance wavelength shift and the peak quantum efficiency of the RCE photodetectors are analyzed in detail, and approaches for minimizing them toward superior performance are suggested. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Hyperfine spectral structure of semiconductor lasers

In this paper, we propose an interference technique that can provide a quantitative and ultrafine-resolution spectral analysis because the optical heterodyning is performed at nonzero frequency and interfering waves propagate in optical fiber. The spectrum of a laser consists of a large number of wave trains. Our study is focused on the features of wave trains. We demonstrate that wave trains emitting simultaneously have random frequency spacings, and the probability of occurrence of two or more joint wave trains with the same frequency is high. The estimated linewidth of the wave train is narrower than 1 mHz, corresponding to a wavelength range of 10(-23) m.

Enhanced infrared emission from colloidal HgTe nanocrystal quantum dots on silicon-on-insulator photonic crystals

A two dimensional silicon-on-insulator based photonic crystal structure is used to enhance the emission from colloidal HgTe nanocrystal quantum dots embedded in a thin polymer film. The enhancement is resonant to the leaky eigenmodes of the photonic crystals due to coherent scattering effects. Transmittance and photoluminescence experiments are presented to map the leaky mode dispersion and the angle dependence of the emission enhancement factor, which reaches values up to 80 (650) for vertical (oblique) emission in the telecommunication wavelength range.

InGaN/GaN p-i-n Photodiodes Fabricated with Mg-Doped p-InGaN Layer

Mg-doped p-InGaN layers with In composition of about 10% are grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The effect of the annealing temperature on the p-type behavior of Mg-doped InGaN is studied. It is found that the hole concentration in p-InGaN increases with a rising annealing temperature in the range of 600 850 C, while the hole mobility remains nearly unchanged until the annealing temperature increases up to 750 C, after which it decreases. On the basis of conductive p-type InGaN growth, the p-In0.1Ga0.9N/i-In0.1Ga0.9N/n-GaN junction structure is grown and fabricated into photodiodes. The spectral responsivity of the InGaN/GaN p-i-n photodiodes shows that the peak responsivity at zero bias is in the wavelength range 350-400 nm.

New type of multimode-interference-type thermo-optic variable optical attenuator

A thermo-optic variable optical attenuator (VOA) based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer and multimode-interference coupler is fabricated. Not a single-mode but a multimode waveguide is used as the input and output structures of the optical field, which greatly reduces the coupling loss of the VOA with a normal single-mode fiber. The insertion loss of the fabricated VOA is 2.52 to 2.82 dB at the wavelength of 1520 to 1570 nm. The polarization dependent loss is 0.28 to 0.45 dB at the same wavelength range. Its maximum attenuation range is up to 26.3 dB when its power consumption is 369 mW. The response frequency of the fabricated VOA is about 10 kHz. (C) 2004 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.

Characterization of polymorphous silicon thin film and solar cells

Polymorphous silicon (pm-Si:H) films have been prepared by a new regime of plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition in the region adjacent of phase transition from amorphous to microcrystalline state. Comparing to the conventional amorphous silicon (a-Si:H), the pm-Si:H has higher photoconductivity (sigma(ph)), better stability, and a broader light spectral response range in the longer wavelength range. It can be found from Raman spectra that there is a notable improvement in the medium range order. There are a blue shift for the stretching mode of IR spectra and a red shift for the wagging mode. The shifts are attributed to the variation of the microstructure. By using pm-Si:H film as intrinsic layer, a p-i-n junction solar cell was prepared with the initial efficiency of 8.51% and a stabilized efficiency of 8.01% (AM1.5, 100mw/cm(2)) at room temperature (T-R).

Detailed model and investigation of gain saturation and carrier spatial hole burning for a semiconductor optical amplifier with gain clamping by a vertical laser field

A detailed model for semiconductor linear optical amplifiers (LOAs) with gain clamping by a vertical laser field is presented, which accounts the carrier and photon density distribution in the longitudinal direction as well as the facet reflectivity. The photon iterative method is used in the simulation with output amplified spontaneous emission spectrum in the wide band as iterative variables. The gain saturation behaviors and the noise figure are numerically simulated, and the variation of longitudinal carrier density with the input power is presented which is associated with the ON-OFF state of the vertical lasers. The results show that the LOA can have a gain spectrum clamped in a wide wavelength range and have almost the same value of noise figure as that of conventional semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs). Numerical results also show that an LOA can have a noise figure about 2 dB less than that of the SOA gain clamped by a distributed Bragg reflector laser.

Monolithically integrated semiconductor optical amplifier and electroabsorption modulator with dual-waveguide spot-size converter input and output

We have demonstrated an electroabsorption modulator and semiconductor optical amplifier monolithically integrated with novel dual-waveguide spot-size converters (SSC) at the input and output ports for low-loss coupling to a planar light-guide circuit silica waveguide or cleaved single-mode optical fibre. The device was fabricated by means of selective-area MOVPE growth, quantum well intermixing and asymmetric twin waveguide technologies with only a three-step low-pressure MOVPE growth. For the device structure, in the SOA/EAM section, a double ridge structure was employed to reduce the EAM capacitances and enable high bit-rate operation. In the SSC sections, buried ridge structure (BRS) was incorporated. Such a combination of ridge, ATG and BRS structure is reported for the first time in which it can take advantage of easy processing of the ridge structure and the excellent mode characteristic of BRS. At the wavelength range of 1550-1600 nm, lossless operation with extinction ratios of 25 dB dc and more than 10 GHz 3 dB bandwidth is successfully achieved, The beam divergence angles of the input and output ports of the device are as small as 8.0 degrees x 12.6 degrees, resulting in 3.0 dB coupling loss with a cleaved single-mode optical fibre.

Lossless electroabsorption modulator monolithically rntegrated with a semiconductor optical amplifier and dual-wavegulde spot-size converters

Semiconductor optical amplifier and electroabsorption modulator monolithically integrated with dual-waveguide spot-size converters at the input and output ports is demonstrated by means of selective area growth, quantum-well intermixing, and asymmetric twin waveguide technologies. At the wavelength range of 1550 similar to 1600 nm, lossless operation with extinction ratios of 25-dB dc and 11.8-dB radio frequency and more than 10-GHz 3-dB modulation bandwidth is successfully achieved. The output beam divergence angles of the device in the horizontal and vertical directions are as small as 7.3 degrees x 10.6 degrees, respectively, resulting in 3.0-dB coupling loss with cleaved single-mode optical fiber.

Low power-consumption and high response frequency thermo-optic variable optical Attenuators based on silicon-on-insulator materials

A novel silicon-on-insulator thermo-optic variable optical attenuator with isolated grooves based on a multimode interference coupler principle is fabricated by the inductive coupled plasma etching technology. The maximum fibre-to-fibre insertion loss is lower than 2.2 dB, the dynamic attenuation range is from 0 to 30 dB in the wavelength range 1500-1600 nm, and the maximum power consumption is only 140 mW. The response frequency of the fabricated variable optical attenuator is about 30 kHz. Compared to the variable optical attenuator without isolated grooves, the maximum power consumption decreases more than 220 mW, and the response frequency rises are more than 20 kHz.