Nanoplasmonic approach for Raman spectroscopy on siliconnitride waveguides

Research Area: Photonic integrated circuits for the visible/near IR , Silicon photonics for lab-on-chip spectroscopy

Main Researcher: Frederic Peyskens

The use of Raman spectroscopy has several advantages for biosensing applications. First of all it offers a unique fingerprint of the analyte under study since Raman signals probe the internal vibrational and rotational levels of the particle. Besides that no labeling of the analyte nor the detecting surface is required. Despite these major advantages Raman spectroscopy suffers from the fact that it is extremely weak. Therefore enhancement mechanisms are necessary for an efficient detection.

It is well established that small metallic nano-antennas exhibit a plasmonic resonance with concomitant large field enhancements. The resonance strongly depends on the surrounding medium and can be tuned by adjusting the geometry of the metallic nanostructures. Efficient excitation of the resonance requires an optimal alignment between the excitation polarization and the antenna axis.

In order to determine the Raman enhancement due to nanoplasmonics we theoretically studied the structure depicted in Fig.1: a silicon nitride waveguide patterned with a nano-plasmonic antenna (Fig. 2). A few important conclusions were drawn from this study. First of all the structure allows for an efficient coupling between the dipole radiation and the fundamental TE-mode. Secondly we found that Raman enhancements up to 10^10 compared to the unpatterned waveguide can be achieved (Fig.3). Furthermore we can (by fabrication) align the nano-antenna optimally with the excitation polarization and excite and collect the Raman signal through the same waveguide. Because of these interesting properties we are investigating different nano-antenna designs integrated on the silicon nitride platform in order to develop efficient and improved Raman sensors.

Other people involved:

• Ananth Subramanian
• Ali Raza
• Nina Turk
• Shiyu Li
• Frederic Peyskens
• Roel Baets
• Nicolas Le Thomas

Related Research Projects

• ERC-AdG: InSpectra (Silicon-photonics-based laser spectroscopy platform: towards a paradigm shift in environmental monitoring and health care)

Downloads

Towards Single Antenna On-Chip Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: Arch Dipole Antenna
Spectroscopic sensing with silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits

Publications

International Journals


1. Z. Liu, J. Zhang, G. Roelkens, N. Le Thomas, R. Baets, Bottom-reflector enhanced grating couplers micro-transfer printed on silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits, accepted for publication in Journal of Lightwave Technology,  (to be published)  .
2. Y. Li, H. Zhao, A. Raza, S. Clemmen, R. Baets, Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy based on plasmonic slot waveguides with free-space oblique illumination, Journal of Quantum Electronics, 56(1), p.paper 7200108 (8 pages) doi:10.1109/jqe.2019.2946839 (2020)  .
3. J. Losada, A. Raza, S. Clemmen, A. Serrano, A. Griol, R. Baets, A. Martinez, SERS detection via individual bow-tie nanoantenna integrated in SiN waveguides, IEEE Journal on Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, doi:10.1109/jstqe.2019.2896200 (2019).
4. A. Raza, S. Clemmen, P.C. Wuytens, M. Muneeb, M. V. Daele, J. Dendooven, C. Detavernier, A. Skirtach, R. Baets, ALD assisted nanoplasmonic slot waveguide for on-chip Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy, Applied Physics Letters - Photonics, 3(11), p.116105 (12 pages) doi:10.1063/1.5048266 (2018)  .
5. A. Subramanian, E.M.P. Ryckeboer, A. Dhakal, F. Peyskens, A. Malik, B. Kuyken, H. Zhao, S. Pathak, A. Ruocco, A. De Groote, P.C. Wuytens, D. Martens, F. Leo, W. Xie, U.D. Dave, M. Muneeb, Pol Van Dorpe, J. Van Campenhout, W. Bogaerts, P. Bienstman, N. Le Thomas, D. Van Thourhout, Zeger Hens, G. Roelkens, R. Baets, Silicon and silicon nitride photonic circuits for spectroscopic sensing on-a-chip , Photonics Research (invited), 5(3), p.B47 doi:10.1364/PRJ.3.000B47 (2015)  .

International Conferences


1. A. Raza, S. Clemmen, M. V. Daele, P.C. Wuytens, J. Dendooven, C. Detavernier, R. Baets, The comparison of on-chip SERS substrates: Nanoplasmonic bowtie antenna vs metal slot waveguide, Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Symposium of the IEEE Photonics Benelux Chapter, Belgium, (2018)  .
2. A. Raza, J. Losada, S. Clemmen, R. Baets, A. Griol, A. Martinez, Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy via isolated plasmonic nanoantennas integrated on silicon nitride waveguides, European Conference on Integrated Optics (ECIO, Spain, p.104-106 (2018).
3. A. Raza, M. Van Daele, P.C. Wuytens, J. Dendooven, C. Detavernier, S. Clemmen, R. Baets, E-beam-lithography free plasmonic slot waveguides for on-chip Raman spectroscopy, CLEO 2018, United States, p.paper SW3L.6 doi:10.1364/CLEO_SI.2018.SW3L.6 (2018).
4. R. Baets, An exploration of on-chip waveguide based modalities for ultra-compact and low-cost Raman spectroscopy, International Conference on Biomedical Photonics (invited), France, (2018).
5. A. Raza, F. Peyskens, P.C. Wuytens, S. Clemmen, P. V. Dorpe, R. Baets, Detection of Surface-enhanced Raman Signals from a Single Nanoplasmonic Antenna Integrated on a Single Mode Waveguide , CLEO: Science and Innovations,, United States, p.paper SM.4D.6 doi:10.1364/cleo_si.2017.sm4d.6 (2017)  .
6. A. Raza, P.C. Wuytens, F. Peyskens, S. Clemmen, P. V. Dorpe, R. Baets, On-chip Enhanced Raman spectroscopy using metal slot waveguide, European Conference on Integrated Optics (ECIO), 19(T7.4), Netherlands, (2017).
7. A. Raza, F. Peyskens, S. Clemmen, R. Baets, Towards Single Antenna On-Chip Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy: Arch Dipole Antenna, The 7th International Conference on Metamaterials, Photonic Cyrstals and Plasmonics (META'16), 7, Spain, p.1196-1197 (2016)  .

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