An optical micro cavity for sensing application

Alan Xu

The Edward S. Rogers Sr. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (Photonics)

Abstract:

Optical devices can be used in a biochemical and gas sensor to help diagnose disease and monitor environment. Conventional optical sensors are bulky and expensive or involve discrete components such a microscope or a spectrometer. All of the bulky medical instruments can be replaced by a microscopic entity, called an optical microcavity, which has small sensing area and only requires analyte as little as 1 femtolitre. Additionally, an integrated micocavity sensor is small enough to be contained in a capsule, which can be ingested by patients. A periodic arrangement of nanometer-sized dielectric pillars is a promising platform to make a microcavity for sensing: in addition to their small size, it also contains more than 80% of void space for materials to infiltrate. During my Ph.D. study, I designed and fabricated pillar-array-based microcavities on a silicon platform. I also experimentally demonstrated a 0.2 nm wide resonance peak at 1550 nm. Leveraging on my research experience in microcavity design and fabrication, I plan to make an integrated optical device for sensing biomolecules.

Biography:

Alan Xu got the Bachelor of Engineering degree from Electronic Engineering Department, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China. After that,heI came to University of Toronto and studied for a master of applied science degree in Materials Science and Engineering department. During the study,he focused on the design and simulation of a nanowire array based photonic crystal cavity for lasering. In the Ph.D. study in ECE department of University of Toronto, he mainly did research to implement a pillar-array based photonic crystal cavity with conventional microelectronic fabrication techniques on a silicon platform. The cavity is designed for sensing application.