Sensitivity of grating couplers as integrated-optical chemical sensors

Abstract

Grating couplers on planar waveguides can be used as integrated-optical sensors responding to (1) changes in the refractive index of a liquid sample covering the waveguide (differential refractometer) and (2) the adsorption and desorption, respectively, of molecules out of a gaseous or liquid sample on the waveguide (gas or chemical sensor). A theory of the sensor sensitivities is developed; conditions for the waveguide parameters in order to obtain high sensitivities are derived. It is shown that effects (1) and (2) can be distinguished by measurements of the effective index changes of both the TE₀ and the TM₀ modes. In the analysis both nonporous and microporous waveguiding films are considered.