Nanophotonic structures with narrow optical resonances, such as high-quality factor photonic crystal cavities, in principle enable spectral sensing with high resolution. This can also result in high-sensitivity displacement and/or acceleration sensing if a part of the cavity is compliant. However, the control of the resonance and its optical read-out are complex and usually not integrated with the sensing part. In this talk we will introduce a novel nano-opto-electromechanical system (NOEMS), where actuation, sensing and read-out are integrated in the same device. It consists of a double-membrane photonic crystal cavity, where the resonant wavelength is tuned by electrostatically controlling the separation between the membranes. The output current signal provides direct information about either the wavelength of the incident light or the cavity resonance. This nanophotonic sensing system can be employed to measure the spectrum of incident light, to determine the wavelength of a laser line with pm-range resolution, or equivalently to measure tiny displacements.

Date Published: 26 July 2016
PDF: 1 pages
Proc. SPIE 9884, Nanophotonics VI, 98840D (26 July 2016); doi: 10.1117/12.2227615

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 9884:
Nanophotonics VI
David L. Andrews; Jean-Michel Nunzi; Andreas Ostendorf, Editor(s)