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Direct and sensitive phase readout for integrated waveguide sensors

From National Research Council Canada

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DOIResolve DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOT.2013.2276747
AuthorSearch for: ; Search for: ; Search for: ; Search for: 1; Search for: 1ORCID identifier: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4232-9130
Affiliation
  1. National Research Council of Canada. Information and Communication Technologies
FormatText, Article
Subjectaverage sensitivities; conventional detection; integrated optical sensors; integrated waveguides; intensity variations; optical phase changes; phase detection; transmittance function; chemical detection; sensitivity analysis
Abstract
Integrated optical affinity sensors based on Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) enable sensitive and label-free detection of chemical and biological molecules. However, since MZIs transduce optical phase changes into sinusoidal intensity variations, they exhibit a variable sensitivity that vanishes at the extrema of the transmittance function. Moreover, the direction of phase change cannot be unambiguously determined with these sensors. Here, we present a coherent detection scheme based on integrated optics that enables unambiguous readout of the optical phase with a constant sensitivity. Our approach furthermore cancels the effect of imperfections in the sensor hardware using a blind calibration scheme. We experimentally show completely linear readout of the optical phase, with a fourfold enhancement of average sensitivity compared to conventional detection.
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  • IEEE Photonics Journal 5, no. 4, 6575104.
LanguageEnglish
Peer reviewedYes
NPARC number21270440
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Record identifier5b81a947-f93f-4093-b1b2-fb10f98f4caf
Record created2014-02-11
Record modified2020-06-04
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