The mid-IR band recently attracted great interest for future wireless communication due to its low attenuation and high tolerance against atmospheric perturbations. Recent advances in monolithic integration of same-wavelength quantum cascade lasers (QCLs) and detectors (QCDs) paved the way for a new generation of functional photonic integrated circuits. In this context, integrating novel mid-IR plasmonic waveguides has been highly suitable for realizing efficient chip-scale optical links between different active components. Here we report on developing a mid-IR on-chip heterodyne receiver. This includes the first demonstration of plasmonic waveguides for on-chip beam-guiding in the long-wave infrared and novel high-performance QCLs and QCDs.
Mid-infrared optical sensors integrating plasmonic waveguides and quantum cascade optoelectronics are an emerging field of research leading to promising results in chemical sensing, environmental monitoring, and biomedical diagnosis. In this work, we investigate TiO2 as waveguiding material for mid-infrared surface plasmon polariton waveguides and show its potential for integrated sensors. Simulations reveal suitable TiO2 dimensions and diffraction grating couplers for ~4.3 µm light. Following these theoretical considerations, we fabricated such devices monolithically integrated with quantum cascade detectors (QCDs) and present their characterization. We further discuss their application in innovative biosensing experiments including glucose detection.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.