Refractive index sensing utilizing photonic crystal nano-beam cavity with slotted stack

Abstract

Two types of optical sensor based on one-dimensional Photonic Crystal (PhC) stack nanobeam cavity has been designed, fabricated and characterized. One-dimensional PhC stack nanobeam cavity with measured Q-factors up to 27000 and a sensitivity of 270nm/RIU has been demonstrated. Then, we introduce a finite width slot between two periodic arrays of the dielectric stacks. Thus, the majority of optical field distributes in the slotted low-index area and the light matter interaction with the analytes has been enhanced. A sensitivity of 410nm/RIU has been achieved while maintaining the Q-factors near 10⁴.