Fabrication and Testing of Photonic Thermometers

• Published in: Journal of visualized experiments no. 140
• Main Authors: Klimov, Nikolai N, Ahmed, Zeeshan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States MyJove Corporation 24.10.2018
• Subjects: Chemistry
• ISSN: 1940-087X; 1940-087X
• DOI: 10.3791/55807

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, the thermo-optic coefficient, i.e., changes in refractive index due to temperature, causes the resonant frequency of the photonic device such as a Bragg grating to drift with temperature. We are developing a suite of photonic devices that leverage recent advances in telecom compatible light sources to fabricate cost-effective photonic temperature sensors, which can be deployed in a wide variety of settings ranging from controlled laboratory conditions, to the noisy environment of a factory floor or a residence. In this manuscript, we detail our protocol for the fabrication and testing of photonic thermometers.