Fabrication and Testing of Photonic Thermometers

Published

October 24, 2018

Author(s)

Nikolai Klimov, Zeeshan Ahmed

Abstract

In recent years, a push for developing novel silicon photonic devices for telecommunications has generated a vast knowledge base that is now being leveraged for developing sophisticated photonic sensors. Silicon photonic sensors seek to exploit the strong confinement of light in nano-waveguides to transduce changes in physical state to changes in resonance frequency. In the case of thermometry, thermo-optic coefficient, i.e. changes in refractive index due to temperature, cause the resonant frequency of the photonic device such as a Bragg grating to drift with temperature. We are developing a suite of photonic devices such as on-chip Bragg waveguides, ring resonators and photonic crystal cavities that leverage advances in microwave and C-band light sources to fabricate cost-effective photonic temperature sensors. Our preliminary results indicate that using photonic devices such as a ring resonator we can measure short term temperature fluctuations of >100 μK at room temperature. Photonic sensor technology provides a low cost, lightweight, portable and EMI resistant solution which can be deployed in a wide variety of settings ranging from controlled laboratory conditions, a noisy factory floor, advanced manufacturing, to the variable environment of a residential setting.

Citation

Journal of Visualized Experiments

Pub Type

Journals

Keywords

photonics, silicon photonics, waveguide, photonic crystal cavity, C-band, ring resonator

Citation

Klimov, N. and Ahmed, Z. (2018), Fabrication and Testing of Photonic Thermometers, Journal of Visualized Experiments (Accessed October 25, 2025)