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Silicon photonic on-chip spatial heterodyne Fourier transform spectrometer exploiting the Jacquinot’s advantage  
Silicon photonic on-chip spatial heterodyne Fourier transform spectrometer exploiting the Jacquinot’s advantage
Infrared spectrometers allow the identification of certain molecules and chemical compounds through the interaction of infrared radiation and matter. In these optical systems, some wavelengths of the infrared light beam are absorbed when passing through a sample due to the vibrational and rotational resonances of the molecules that compose it. The spectrum of the input signal is recovered from the interference pattern (dependent on wavelength) measured at the output of the spectrometer using computational techniques, thus providing information on the molecular composition of the sample.

In the article, a scientific team involving the Institute of Optics has experimentally demonstrated a spatially heterodyne Fourier transform spectrometer on a silicon chip, which for the first time implements a large-area light harvesting system to simultaneously power a matrix of 16 Mach-Zehnder interferometers. Although this type of miniaturized spectrometer inherently has a high optical performance (also called the Jacquinot advantage) due to the spatial distribution of the multiple interferometers, the devices reported to date did not take advantage of this advantage by using a single input waveguide combined with power dividers, or multiple inputs accessed individually. The great optical performance achieved with the proposed light collection system together with the error correction algorithms, have allowed to demonstrate a resolution of 85 pm using a large area entrance aperture and integrated photodetectors, without any degradation compared to illumination. individual of each interferometer and reading with external photodetectors.

This miniaturized photonic spectrometer on a silicon chip has immense potential for use in on-board systems where weight, robustness and optical performance are key parameters. Its main applications include medical diagnosis, biological and environmental analysis, astrophysics and planetary science, among others.

Link to article

The work is a collaboration between the Center de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies (C2N) of the Université Paris-Sud and Université Paris-Saclay, the Institute of Optics, the University Grenoble Alpes and CEA, the National Research Council Canada and the Center for Research in Photonics from the University of Ottawa.
 
Investigación financiada por el Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación y la Agencia Estatal de Investigación
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