Ultra-compact photonic crystal based water temperature sensor

Abstract

Abstract We design an ultra-compact water temperature sensor by using the photonic crystal technology on the InP substrate at the 1.55-μm wavelength window. The photonic crystal consists of rods in a hexagonal lattice and a polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) background. By using the plane wave expansion (PWE) method, the lattice constant and radius of rods are obtained, 520 nm and 80.6 nm, respectively. With a nanocavity placed in the waveguide, a resonance peak is observed at the 1.55-μm wavelength window. Any change of the water temperature inside the nanocavity results in the shift of the resonance wavelength. Our simulations show a shift of about 11 nm for a temperature change of 22.5 ℃. The resonance wavelength has a linear relation with the water temperature.