Asymmetric split H-shape nanoantennas for molecular sensing.

In this paper we report on a very sensitive biosensor based on gold asymmetric nanoantennas that are capable of enhancing the molecular resonances of C-H bonds. The nanoantennas are arranged as arrays of asymmetric-split H-shape (ASH) structures, tuned to produce plasmonic resonances with reflectance double peaks within the mid-infrared vibrational resonances of C-H bonds for the assay of deposited films of the molecule 17ß-estradiol (E2), used as an analyte. Measurements and numerical simulations of the reflectance spectra have enabled an estimated enhancement factor on the order of 105 to be obtained for a thin film of E2 on the ASH array. A high sensitivity value of 2335 nm/RIU was achieved, together with a figure of merit of approximately 8. Our experimental results were corroborated using numerical simulations for the C-H stretch vibrational resonances from the analyte, superimposed on the plasmonic resonances of the ASH nanoantennas.

Photo-induced reduction of graphene oxide coating on optical waveguide and consequent optical intermodulation.

Increased absorption of transverse-magnetic (TM)-polarised light by a graphene-oxide (GO) coated polymer waveguide has been observed in the presence of transverse-electric (TE)-polarised light. The GO-coated waveguide exhibits very strong photo-absorption of TE-polarised light--and acts as a TM-pass waveguide polariser. The absorbed TE-polarised light causes a significant temperature increase in the GO film and induces thermal reduction of the GO, resulting in an increase in optical-frequency conductivity and consequently increased optical propagation loss. This behaviour in a GO-coated waveguide gives the action of an inverted optical switch/modulator. By varying the incident TE-polarised light power, a maximum modulation efficiency of 72% was measured, with application of an incident optical power level of 57 mW. The GO-coated waveguide was able to respond clearly to modulated TE-polarised light with a pulse duration of as little as 100 µs. In addition, no wavelength dependence was observed in the response of either the modulation (TE-polarised light) or the signal (TM-polarised light).

Graphene oxide-based waveguide polariser: from thin film to quasi-bulk.

We have demonstrated a broadband waveguide polariser with high extinction ratio on a polymer optical waveguide coated with graphene oxide via the drop-casting method. The highest extinction ratio of nearly 40 dB is measured at 1590 nm, with a variation of 4.5 dB across a wavelength range from 1530 nm to 1630 nm, a ratio that is (to our knowledge) the highest reported for graphene-based waveguide polarisers to date. This result is achieved with a graphene oxide coating length along the propagation direction of only 1.3 mm and a bulk film thickness of 2.0 µm. The underlying principles of the strongly polarisation dependent propagation loss demonstrated have been studied and are attributed to the anisotropic complex dielectric function of graphene oxide bulk film.

Modulational instability in a silicon-on-insulator directional coupler: role of the coupling-induced group velocity dispersion.

We report frequency conversion experiments in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) directional couplers. We demonstrate that the evanescent coupling between two subwavelength SOI waveguides is strongly dispersive and significantly modifies modulational instability (MI) spectra through the coupling induced group velocity dispersion (GVD). As the separation between two 380-nm-wide silicon photonic wires decreases, the increasing dispersion of the coupling makes the GVD in the symmetric supermode more normal and suppresses the bandwidth of the MI gain observed for larger separations.

Charge state switching of deep levels for low-power optical modulation in silicon waveguides.

We demonstrate a method for the efficient modulation of optical wavelengths around 1550 nm in silicon waveguides. The amplitude of a propagating signal is mediated via control of the charge state of indium centers, rather than using free-carriers alone as in the plasma-dispersion effect. A 1×1 switch formed of an integrated p-i-n junction in an indium-doped silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguide provides 'normally-off' silicon absorption of greater than 7 dB at zero bias. This loss is decreased to 2.8 dB with application of a 6 V applied reverse bias, with a power consumption of less than 1 µW.

Time and frequency domain measurements of solitons in subwavelength silicon waveguides using a cross-correlation technique.

We report time domain measurements of the group-velocity-dispersion-induced and nonlinearity-induced chirping of femtosecond pulses in subwavelength silicon-on-insulator waveguides. We observe that at a critical input power level, these two effects compensate each other leading to soliton formation. Formation of the fundamental optical soliton is observed at a peak power of a few Watts inside the waveguide. Interferometric cross-correlation traces reveal compression of the soliton pulses, while spectral measurements show pronounced dispersive waves emitted by solitons into the wavelength range of normal group velocity dispersion.

Retrieval of Bragg grating transmission spectra by post-process removal of spurious Fabry-Pérot oscillations.

Efficient post-process suppression is demonstrated of spurious Fabry-Pérot oscillations, introduced by multiple cavity effects in transmission spectra measurements of various Bragg grating devices. These devices were fabricated within access waveguides and terminated with cleaved facets. The tool, based on a curve-fitting to an equivalent scattering matrix model, is shown to extract transmission spectra of devices, without a-priori knowledge of their properties. Simple and complex grating structure spectra are successfully extracted and compare well with simulated results. The technique exhibits robust behaviour for varying facet conditions and device geometries, outperforming classical averaging techniques.

Closure of the stop-band in photonic wire Bragg gratings.

Photonic Wire Bragg Gratings, made by periodic insertion of lateral rectangular recesses into photonic wires in silicon-on-insulator, can provide large reflectivity with short device lengths because of their large index contrast. This type of design shows a counter-intuitive behaviour, as we demonstrate - using experimental and numerical data - that it can have low or null reflectance, even for large indentation values. We provide physical insight into this phenomenon by developing a model based on Bloch mode theory, and are able to find an analytical expression for the frequency at which the grating does not sustain the stop-band. Finally we demonstrate that the stop-band closing effect is a general phenomenon that may occur in various types of periodic device that can be modeled as transmission line structures.

Solitons and spectral broadening in long silicon-on- insulator photonic wires.

We report measurements and numerical modeling of spectral broadening and soliton propagation regimes in silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguides of 3 to 4 dispersion lengths using 100fs pump pulses. We also present accurate measurements of the group index and dispersion of the photonic wire.

Planar photonic crystal polarization splitter.

The differential dispersion relation for the E and H modes (TM-like and TE-like, respectively) in planar photonic crystals is used to control the polarization-dependent propagation of light. E- and H-polarized beams were separated by 10 degrees after propagating through a 20-microm-long planar photonic crystal in the wavelength range from 1250 to 1300 nm. The plane-wave expansion calculation matches well with the experimental results. This result represents the first demonstration, to our knowledge, of a polarization splitter realized in a planar photonic crystal configuration in the near-infrared wavelength range operating solely in transmission mode.

Second-harmonic generation from a first-order quasi-phase-matched GaAs/AlGaAs waveguide crystal.

We demonstrate, for the first time to our knowledge, the generation of second-harmonic pulses by use of a novel methodology for achieving first-order quasi-phase matching in a semiconductor waveguide crystal. This methodology is based on a periodic modulation of the susceptibility coefficient along the direction of light-beam propagation in which advantage is taken of the fact that chi((2))(GaAs)>chi((2))(Al(x)Ga(1-x)As) . Efficient second-harmonic generation at 975 nm of a pump wavelength of 1950 nm has been demonstrated for a crystal with a nonuniform domain dimension (duty cycle, ~39/61).

Nonlinear propagation effects in an AlGaAs Bragg grating filter.

We present experimental observations of nonlinear propagation effects in an integrated AlGaAs waveguide filter. We demonstrate pulse shaping, pulse compression, and the production of gap solitons within the stop band of the grating for switching powers of approximately 130 W . This nonlinear behavior is associated with the counterbalancing effects of self-phase modulation and the large dispersion effects introduced by the grating itself.

Surface-grating distributed bragg reflector quantum-well lasers fabricated in AlGaAs-GaAs asymmetric epitaxial waveguides.

Ridge waveguide lasers, integrated with single deep-surface distributed Bragg reflectors (DBR's) in the passive section, were fabricated with a GaAs-AlGaAs double-quantum-well structure in an asymmetric waveguide. Third-order gratings, with a period of 389 nm and defined by holographic lithography, were formed by low-damage reactive ion etching processes. The grating losses and optical coupling coefficients were estimated, in particular, by use of the relationship between the real and the effective grating lengths that were computed and reexamined by measurements of grating periodicity and mode spacing. By use of two different geometries, we produced guide lines for obtaining high-performance lasing properties for these surface-grating DBR lasers. Additionally, a detailed analysis of lasing wavelength shifts was carried out for this study. It was found that injected-carrier-induced effects shift the lasing wavelength much more than gain-loss competition within an extended DBR laser cavity.

Fabrication of multipassband moiré resonators in fibers by the dual-phase-mask exposure method.

We report on the fabrication of in-fiber moiré filters by dual exposure of a nondedicated chirped phase mask. This simple technique produces broadband filters whose structure depends only on an intermediate stretch between two identical UV exposures. We demonstrate moiré filters with as many as four narrow passbands within a 2-nm stopband.

Proton-exchanged LiNbO(3) waveguides: relevance of atmospheric environment during annealing.

The relevance of the type of atmosphere used during the annealing of proton-exchanged LiNbO(3) planar waveguides is discussed. The experimental evidence, based on a comparison of the refractive-index profiles of waveguides annealed under wet O(2), dry O(2), or ambient atmospheres, with various gas flow rates, suggests that the atmosphere type does not influence the properties of the resulting waveguide.

An evanescent fluorescence biosensor using ion-exchanged buried waveguides and the enhancement of peak fluorescence.

The principle of an optical molecular sensor using ion-exchanged buried planar waveguides in glass has been demonstrated. We have shown both theoretically and experimentally that the intensity of the peak evanescent fluorescence can be increased by several orders of magnitude with the use of an index-matching material. The method of differential measurement has been used to improve the differentiation between specific and non-specific binding. We used h-IgG (human immunoglobulin G) as the immobilized antibody on the surface of the waveguide and protein A-FITC (fluorescein isothiocyanate) as the fluorescently labelled antigen or anti-antibody to be detected, and have shown that a concentration of protein A as low as 24 nM can easily be detected.

Electro-optic-waveguide frequency translator in LiNbO(3) fabricated by proton exchange.

An optical waveguide phase modulator has been fabricated on X-cut LiNbO(3) by using proton exchange in benzoic acid. The phase modulator was operated as a serrodyne optical-frequency translator with shifted-signal to imagesignal discrimination of 52 dB for a 4-MHz frequency shift. The amplitude of the sawtooth driving signal was 10 V peak to peak. Application of a de bias voltage of either polarity was found to cause a substantial reduction in transmitted-light intensity.

Propagation characteristics of trapezoidal cross-section ridge optical waveguides: an experimental and theoretical investigation.

A detailed experimental and theoretical study of narrow ridge waveguides in glass films formed by ion-etching of patterns in photoresist has been carried out. Because the resultant waveguide profiles are trapezoidal a numerical approach, the finite-element method, has been used to compute theoretical dispersion curves. Experimental dispersion curves were obtained from measurements of output m-lines. Agreement between experiment and theory varies from moderately good to excellent over the range of waveguide profiles studied.