Design Procedure and Fabrication of Reproducible Silicon Vernier Devices for High-Performance Refractive Index...

Area of Science:

• Photonics and sensing technologies
• Integrated optics
• Chemical and biochemical sensing

Background:

• Integrated Vernier devices offer high sensitivity for sensing applications.
• Precise control over design and fabrication is crucial for optimal performance.
• Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform is suitable for integrated photonic devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a generalized design procedure for high-performance integrated Vernier devices.
• To demonstrate accurate control of critical design and fabrication parameters for SOI cascade-coupled racetrack resonators.
• To investigate the influence of design parameters and process variability on Vernier device operation.

Main Methods:

• Design and fabrication of silicon-on-insulator cascade-coupled racetrack resonators.
• Operation in the second regime of the Vernier effect at 1.55 μm wavelength.
• Experimental investigation of design parameters and waveguide process variability.

Main Results:

• High reproducibility and agreement with theoretical predictions (relative errors < 1%).
• Achieved Vernier gain of 30.3.
• Average insertion loss of 2.1 dB and extinction ratio up to 30 dB.

Conclusions:

• The proposed generalized design procedure enables accurate control for high-performance Vernier sensing devices.
• Experimental results validate the theoretical predictions and demonstrate the reliability of the design strategy.
• The developed Vernier architectures show significant potential for advanced chemical and biochemical sensing applications.