Fabrication of buried nanostructures by atomic layer deposition.

We present a method for fabricating buried nanostructures by growing a dielectric cover layer on a corrugated surface profile by atomic layer deposition of TiO2. Selecting appropriate process parameters, the conformal growth of TiO2 results in a smooth, nearly flat-top surface of the structure. Such a hard surface can be easily cleaned without damage, making the nanostructure reusable after contamination. The technique has wide applicability in resonance-domain diffractive optics and in realization of quasi-planar metamaterials. We discuss design issues of such optical elements and demonstrate the method by fabricating narrow-band spectral filters based on the guided-mode resonance effect. These elements have strong potential for, e.g., sensing applications in harsh conditions.

Silicon slot waveguide Fano resonator.

The growing interest for Fano resonators during the past decade is due to the narrow line shape observable in their optical spectra. The drastic phase shift occurring at the resonance yields a steep drop from a high to low amplitude. Fano resonances can be obtained by a combination of nanostructures. Such a system is extremely sensitive in terms of both geometrical parameters and environmental conditions. Here we study a complex arrangement of photonic crystal cavities and slot waveguides on a silicon chip. Our structure, composed of several cavities in parallel, has a particular response superimposing a shallow photonic bandgap and a resonance with a Fano line shape. It provides a low noise and a clear asymmetric resonance. We demonstrate it experimentally and show the potential of such a device for sensing. A sensitivity of 92 nm/RIU is measured.

Multi-wavelength add-drop filter with phase-modulated shifted Bragg grating.

We present, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, a multichannel add-drop operation with a phase-modulated shifted Bragg grating based filter. The device is realized in a silicon-on-insulator waveguide platform with TiO2 as a coating material to reduce the refractive index contrast. The operation is shown for three and five wavelength channels within the telecom C-band. A line width of 0.6 nm with an extinction ratio of 20 dB is achieved. The shifted Bragg grating is modulated maintaining a modal phase-matching condition for multiple wavelengths. The phase function is calculated with an iterative Fourier transform algorithm. The experimental results are in very good agreement with the design.

Multi-wavelength filtering with a waveguide integrated phase-modulated Bragg grating.

We present a multi-wavelength band-rejection filter on a titanium dioxide-coated silicon-on-insulator platform. The concept rests on the use of a finely tuned waveguide-based Bragg grating for which the periods are slightly varied from one to another. This phase-modulated Bragg grating enables precise customization of integrated waveguide filters. The number of rejection bands and the center-to-center separation between them are tailored by dividing the grating into several super-periods and coding an optimal phase function onto each super-period. The optimal phase function is obtained by employing an iterative Fourier transform algorithm. The design is supported by an experimental demonstration.

Influence of an Al2O3 surface coating on the response of polymeric waveguide sensors.

The responses of a polymer ridge waveguide Young interferometer with and without a bilayer of Al2O3/TiO2, fabricated by atomic layer deposition, are studied and compared when applied as an aqueous chemical sensor. The phase shift of the guided mode, as a result of the change in refractive index of the cover medium, is monitored. The results indicate that the over-coating affects the linearity of the sensor response. The effect of concentration on the linearity of the sensor response is investigated by applying different concentrations of water-ethanol solution. Although the performance of the sensor is improved by the additional layers, the study reveals a non-monotonic behavior of the device. We show that it comes mainly from the adsorption of ethanol molecules on the surface of the films. Such an understanding of the platform is crucial for sensing of analytes involving polar molecules.

Strip-loaded waveguide on titanium dioxide thin films by nanoimprint replication.

We present a convenient, low-cost, and mass-production-compatible technique for the fabrication of strip-loaded waveguides. The technique is based on the atomic layer deposition of a slab waveguide, nanoimprinting of a strip, and integration of two structures by lamination. The guiding layer is chosen to be a 200 nm thick titanium dioxide film. The waveguide characteristics are determined by the use of ring resonators. The technique is demonstrated for titanium dioxide thin films, but it is applicable to any other material that meets the refractive index difference condition between the loading strip and the slab waveguide.

Strip-loaded horizontal slot waveguide.

We introduce a novel concept for an optical waveguide called a strip-loaded slot waveguide. It allows an extraordinary confinement of the field in a waveguide with an extremely tiny (vertical) cross section. Unlike conventional slot waveguides, the proposed configuration has potential for very low propagation losses. Its operation is demonstrated at telecommunication wavelengths and, in addition, it is fabricated by means of mass production compatible techniques: atomic layer deposition and nanoimprint replication. The possibility to fabricate the proposed structure with such low-cost techniques opens a new path for a variety of nanophotonics applications.

Add-drop filter based on TiO2 coated shifted Bragg grating.

We present a titanium dioxide coated shifted Bragg grating in a silicon-on-insulator platform enabling optical add-drop functionality. The device works on the basis of mode conversion due to shifted sidewall structure followed by mode splitting based on an asymmetric Y-coupler. We experimentally demonstrate the working principle of the device. A reflection bandwidth of 2.2 nm with 14 dB extinction ratio is obtained with a 300 µm long shifted Bragg grating. The performance of the device is also compared without the titanium dioxide coating. A scope of spectral tunability with titanium dioxide re-coating (0.8 nm per 1 nm re-coating) by atomic layer deposition is experimentally verified.

Hybrid layered polymer slot waveguide Young interferometer.

We demonstrate a polymer slot waveguide Young interferometer coated with a bilayer of Al2O3/TiO2. The approach enables relaxed dimensions of the polymer waveguide which simplifies the fabrication of the structure with a resolution of 50 nm. The layers were coated by an atomic layer deposition technique. The feasibility of the device was investigated by exploiting the interferometric structure as a bulk refractive index sensor operating at 975 nm wavelength for detection of an ethanol-water solution. A refractive index change of 1 × 10-6 RIU with a sensing length of only 800 µm was detected. The approach confirms the possibility of realizing a low cost device with a small footprint and enhanced sensitivity by employing the TiO2 rails in the sides of the slot waveguide.

Pyrolytic carbon coated black silicon.

Carbon is the most well-known black material in the history of man. Throughout the centuries, carbon has been used as a black material for paintings, camouflage, and optics. Although, the techniques to make other black surfaces have evolved and become more sophisticated with time, carbon still remains one of the best black materials. Another well-known black surface is black silicon, reflecting less than 0.5% of incident light in visible spectral range but becomes a highly reflecting surface in wavelengths above 1000 nm. On the other hand, carbon absorbs at those and longer wavelengths. Thus, it is possible to combine black silicon with carbon to create an artificial material with very low reflectivity over a wide spectral range. Here we report our results on coating conformally black silicon substrate with amorphous pyrolytic carbon. We present a superior black surface with reflectance of light less than 0.5% in the spectral range of 350 nm to 2000 nm.

Slow-light enhanced electro-optic modulation with an on-chip silicon-hybrid Fano system.

We present the theoretical study of a coupled cavity system yielding a Fano response on a fully on-chip silicon platform hybridized with an electro-optic polymer. This novel Fano system is based on a slot waveguide Bragg grating geometry, enabling a huge enhancement of the electro-optic properties due to slow light effects at the resonance. The modulator shows a high resonance tunability of 1.75 nm/V and a low switching power of 0.63 V. Such a versatile system shows the promise for various nonlinear and active devices only by using suitable cover material.

Optical characterization of directly deposited graphene on a dielectric substrate.

By using scanning multiphoton microscopy we compare the nonlinear optical properties of the directly deposited and transferred to the dielectric substrate graphene. The direct deposition of graphene on oxidized silicon wafer was done by utilizing sacrificial copper catalyst film. We demonstrate that the directly deposited graphene and bi-layered transferred graphene produce comparable third harmonic signals and have almost the same damage thresholds. Therefore, we believe directly deposited graphene is suitable for the use of e.g. nanofabricated optical setups.

Optical identification based on time domain optical coherence tomography.

We present a novel method for optical identification, i.e., authenticating valuable documents such as a passport, credit cards, and bank notes, using optical coherence tomography (OCT). An OCT system can capture three-dimensional (3D) images and visualize the internal structure of an object. In our work, as an object, we consider a multilayered optical identification tag composed of a limited number of thin layers (10-100 µm thick). The thickness, width, and location of the layers in the tag encode a unique identification information. Reading of the tag is done using a time domain OCT (TD-OCT) system. Typically, a TD-OCT system requires continuous mechanical scanning in one or more directions to get a 3D volume image of an object. The continuous scanning implies a complicated optical setup, which makes an OCT system fragile and expensive. We propose to avoid the conventional scanning by (1) not requiring 3D imaging, and (2) utilizing the motion of the optical tag itself. The motion is introduced to the tag reader, for example, by a user, which replaces the need for conventional scanning. The absence of a conventional scanning mechanism makes the proposed OCT method very simple and suited for identification purposes; however, it also puts some constraints to the construction of the optical tag, which we discuss in this paper in detail.

Parabolic opening in atomic layer deposited TiO(2) nanobeam operating in visible wavelengths.

We investigate the feasibility of developing a one dimensional photonic crystal cavity on a TiO2 platform operating in the visible. The atomic layer deposition technique is used to finely adjust the parameters of the structure. We present the experimental demonstration of a nanobeam cavity with a quadratically tapered row of holes, in which a parabolic window is opened in order to facilitate the infiltration of gas, liquid, nonlinear material, or quantum emitters. The structure exhibits a photonic band gap between λ = 635 nm and λ = 690 nm and several resonances within the photonic band gap.

High Aspect-Ratio Iridium-Coated Nanopillars for Highly Reproducible Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS).

A variety of different gold and silver nanostructures have been proposed over the years as high sensitivity surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors. However, efficient use of SERS has been hindered by the difficulty of realizing SERS substrates that provide reproducible SERS response over the whole active area. Here, we show that atomic layer deposition (ALD) grown iridium can be used to produce highly reliable SERS substrates. The substrates are based on a periodic array of high aspect-ratio iridium coated nanopillars that feature efficient and symmetrically distributed hot spots within the interpillar gaps (gap width<10 nm). We show that the enhancement with the iridium based nanostructures is of significant magnitude and it equals the enhancement of silver based reference substrates. Most notably, we demonstrate that the ordered and well-defined plasmonic nanopillars offer a measurement-to-measurement variability of 5%, which paves the way for truly quantitative SERS measurements.

Titanium dioxide slot waveguides for visible wavelengths.

We present the first, to our knowledge, experimental demonstration of a titanium dioxide slot waveguide operating in the visible range of light. Ring resonators based on slot waveguides were designed, fabricated, and characterized for λ≃650 nm. The fabrication method includes atomic layer deposition, electron beam lithography, and reactive ion etching. The required narrow slot widths of a few tens of nanometers were achieved by using a conformal atomic layer re-coating technique. This unique feature-size-reduction technique was applied after the final etching step.

Investigation of second- and third-harmonic generation in few-layer gallium selenide by multiphoton microscopy.

Gallium selenide (GaSe) is a layered semiconductor and a well-known nonlinear optical crystal. The discovery of graphene has created a new vast research field focusing on two-dimensional materials. We report on the nonlinear optical properties of few-layer GaSe using multiphoton microscopy. Both second- and third-harmonic generation from few-layer GaSe flakes were observed. Unexpectedly, even the peak at the wavelength of 390 nm, corresponding to the fourth-harmonic generation or the sum frequency generation from third-harmonic generation and pump light, was detected during the spectral measurements in thin GaSe flakes.

A solution to the fabrication and tarnishing problems of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) fiber probes.

Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) fiber probes have enormous potential in optical sensing applications. However, their widespread use has been hindered by two major obstacles: the difficulty of fabricating the required silver nanostructures on optical fibers and the tarnishing of silver, rapidly degrading their sensing properties. Here we propose a solution to these dilemmas by abandoning the use of metallic silver and conventional nanofabrication procedures. Instead, we base our fabrication on chemically stable silver chloride and show that it can be directly grown on the optical fibers without any advanced fabrication equipment. As silver chloride itself is not SERS-active, we demonstrate how to "activate" the probes by turning the crystals into metallic silver nanostructures via photoreduction. We verify that if stored in the non-activated stage, the sensing properties of the structures remain unchanged. Finally, we demonstrate the high sensitivity (signal-to-noise ratio up to 42 ± 3 dB) of the probes in real-time in situ measurements at nanomolar analyte concentrations.

One-dimensional photonic crystals with cylindrical geometry.

A one-dimensional photonic crystal (1DPC) consisting of a stack of alternate TiO(2) and Al(2)O(3) layers is deposited on the side wall of a glass rod by Atomic Layer Deposition. The stack is designed to sustain TE-polarized Bloch Surface Waves (BSW) in the visible spectrum at wavelengths shorter than 650 nm. Experimental evidence of light coupling and guiding capabilities of the 1DPC is provided together with a possible application for fluorescence-based remote sensors.

Polarization independent integrated filter based on a cross-slot waveguide.

We investigate an in-line band pass filter, working both for TE and TM polarizations, based on a cross-slot waveguide merged with a Bragg grating and an optical cavity. Different types of cavities (C2- and C4-symmetric) are presented in order to optimize the filtering and make the device dependent or independent on the polarization. We show a strong light confinement in an extremely small volume, which offers an advantage for further sensing applications. Moreover, we show how the inclusion of a silicon nanowire in the cavity helps the guiding and increases the amplitude of the resonance. In this study we make use of both the Fourier Modal Method and the Finite Difference Time Domain method to perform the numerical simulations.