Open AccessHighly sensitive digital optical sensor based on cascaded high-Q ring-resonators
Author(s) -
Daoxin Dai
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.17.023817
Subject(s) - optics , resonator , refractive index , spectrometer , ring (chemistry) , free spectral range , sensitivity (control systems) , materials science , port (circuit theory) , optoelectronics , physics , electronic engineering , chemistry , organic chemistry , engineering
A digital optical sensor based on two cascaded rings with different free spectral ranges (FSRs) is proposed. Because of their different FSRs, the major peak of the spectral response from the output port shifts digitally when the effective refractive index of ring #1 changes. And the shift of the major peak is equal to multiple FSRs of ring #2. Since it is easy to design a ring with a FSR of nanometers, the present digital optical sensor shows an ultra-high sensitivity (at the order of 10(5) nm/RIU) which is over two orders higher than that of a regular single-ring sensor. By using the present digital optical sensor, it becomes convenient to use an integrated optical micro-spectrometer (even with a low resolution) to monitor the peak shift of the spectral response. Therefore, it is promising to realize a low-cost and portable highly-sensitive optical sensor system on a single chip.