abstract
An integrated photonic-on-a-chip device based on a single organic-inorganic di-ureasil hybrid was fabricated for optical waveguide and temperature sensing. The device is composed by a thermal actuated Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometer operating with a switching power of 0.011 W and a maximum temperature difference between branches of 0.89 oC. The MZ interferometer is covered by a Eu3+/Tb3+ co-doped di-ureasil luminescent molecular thermometer with a temperature uncertainty of 0.1oC and a spatial resolution of 13 mu m. This is an uncommon example in which the same material (an organic-inorganic hybrid) that is used to fabricate a particular device (a thermal-actuated MZ interferometer) is also used to measure one of the device intrinsic properties (the operating temperature). The photonic-on-a-chip example discussed here can be applied to sense temperature gradients with high resolution (10(-3) oC mu m(-1)) in chip-scale heat engines or refrigerators, magnetic nanocontacts and energy-harvesting machines.
keywords
OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES; THERMOOPTICAL COEFFICIENTS; TEMPERATURE; TECHNOLOGY; POLYMERS; DEVICES; PLANAR; FILMS; FABRICATION; ATTENUATOR
subject category
Optics; Physics
authors
Ferreira, RAS; Brites, CDS; Vicente, CMS; Lima, PP; Bastos, ARN; Marques, PG; Hiltunen, M; Carlos, LD; Andre, PS
our authors
Carlos Brites
Associate Professor
Carlos Miguel Santos Vicente
Post-doc Fellowship
Luís Carlos
Full professor
Maria Rute de Amorim e Sá Ferreira André
Full professor
Patrícia Pereira Lima
Post-doc Fellowshipacknowledgements
Funding was provided by FundacAo para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia (FCT), FEDER, COMPETE, under contracts PEst-C/CTM/LA0013/2013, PTDC/CTM/101324/2008, SFRH/BPD/34365/2006 (PPL), SRFH/BPD/87473/2012 (CV) and SFRH/BPD/89003/2012 (CDSB). LDC thanks CAPES (Brazil funding agency) by a fellowship within the Nanobiotec network