Photonic-on-a-chip: a thermal actuated Mach-Zehnder interferometer and a molecular thermometer based on a single di-ureasil organic-inorganic hybrid

authors	Ferreira, RAS; Brites, CDS; Vicente, CMS; Lima, PP; Bastos, ARN; Marques, PG; Hiltunen, M; Carlos, LD; Andre, PS
nationality	International
journal	LASER & PHOTONICS REVIEWS
author keywords	Organic-Inorganic hybrids; optically active materials; photonics; photoluminescence; photonic-on-a-chip device
keywords	OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES; THERMOOPTICAL COEFFICIENTS; TEMPERATURE; TECHNOLOGY; POLYMERS; DEVICES; PLANAR; FILMS; FABRICATION; ATTENUATOR
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.
publisher	WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH
issn	1863-8880
year published	2013
volume	7
issue	6
beginning page	1027
ending page	1035
digital object identifier (doi)	10.1002/lpor.201300080
web of science category	Optics; Physics, Applied; Physics, Condensed Matter
subject category	Optics; Physics
unique article identifier	WOS:000328150300021