Lasing Emission from Soft Photonic Crystals for Pressure and Position Sensing

Tsan-Wen Lu*, Zhen Yu Wang, Kuang Ming Lin, Po Tsung Lee

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

1 Scopus citations

Abstract

In this report, we introduce a 1D photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity with waveguide-like strain amplifiers within a soft polydimethylsiloxane substrate, presenting it as a potential candidate for highly sensitive pressure and position optical sensors. Due to its substantial optical wavelength response to uniform pressure, laser emission from this nanocavity enables the detection of a minimum applied uniform pressure of 1.6‰ in experiments. Based on this feature, we further studied and elucidated the distinct behaviors in wavelength shifts when applying localized pressure at various positions relative to the PhC nanocavity. In experiments, by mapping wavelength shifts of the PhC nanolaser under localized pressure applied using a micro-tip at different positions, we demonstrate the nanocavity’s capability to detect minute position differences, with position-dependent minimum resolutions ranging from tens to hundreds of micrometers. Furthermore, we also propose and validate the feasibility of employing the strain amplifier as an effective waveguide for extracting the sensing signal from the nanocavity. This approach achieves a 64% unidirectional coupling efficiency for leading out the sensing signal to a specific strain amplifier. We believe these findings pave the way for creating a highly sensitive position-sensing module that can accurately identify localized pressure in a planar space.

Original languageEnglish
Article number2956
JournalNanomaterials
Volume13
Issue number22
DOIs
StatePublished - Nov 2023

Keywords

  • flexible nanophotonics
  • nanocavity
  • optical strain sensors
  • photonic crystal
  • semiconductor lasers

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