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Updated: May 10, 2026
Fabrication of High Contrast Gratings for the Spectrum Splitting Dispersive Element in a Concentrated Photovoltaic System
Published on: July 18, 2015
Design and fabrication of a planar PDMS transmission grating microspectrometer
Seyed M Azmayesh-Fard1, Lawrence Lam, Aaron Melnyk
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Alberta, ECERF Building, 9107 - 116 Street, NW, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G2V4.
Abstract:
We describe the monolithic integration of microfluidic channels, optical waveguides, a collimating lens and a curved focusing transmission grating in a single PDMS-based microsystem. All optical and fluidic components of the device were simultaneously formed in a single layer of high refractive index (n~1.43) PDMS by soft lithography. Outer layers of lower-index (n~1.41) PDMS were subsequently added to provide optical and fluidic confinement. Here, we focus on the design and characterization of the microspectrometer part, which employs a novel self-focusing strategy based on cylindrical facets, and exhibits resolution <10 nm in the visible wavelength range. The dispersive behavior of the grating was analyzed both experimentally and using numerical simulations, and the results are in good agreement with simplified analytical predictions.
