Solid immersion lens at the aplanatic condition for enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a waveguide grating coupler

Marcelo B. Pereira; Jill S. Craven; Sergio B. Mendes

doi:10.1117/1.3520063

1 December 2010 Solid immersion lens at the aplanatic condition for enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a waveguide grating coupler

Marcelo B. Pereira, Jill S. Craven, Sergio B. Mendes

Author Affiliations +

Optical Engineering, Vol. 49, Issue 12, 124601 (December 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3520063

Abstract

We report a technique to substantially boost the spectral bandwidth of a conventional waveguide grating coupler by using a solid immersion cylindrical lens at the aplanatic condition to create a highly anamorphic beam and reach a much larger numerical aperture, thus enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a free-space propagating optical beam coupled into a single-mode planar integrated optical waveguide (IOW). Our experimental results show that the broadband IOW spectrometer thus created almost doubles (94% enhancement) the coupled spectral bandwidth of a conventional configuration. To exemplify the benefits made possible by the developed approach, we applied the technique to the broadband spectroscopic characterization of a protein submonolayer; our experimental data confirm the enhanced spectral bandwidth (around 380-nm) and illustrate the potentials of the developed technology. Besides the enhanced bandwidth, the broadband coupler of the single-mode IOW spectrometer described here is more robust and user-friendly than those previously reported in the literature and is expected to have an important impact on spectroscopic studies of surface-adsorbed molecular layers and surface phenomena.

©(2010) Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE)

Citation Download Citation

Marcelo B. Pereira, Jill S. Craven, and Sergio B. Mendes "Solid immersion lens at the aplanatic condition for enhancing the spectral bandwidth of a waveguide grating coupler," Optical Engineering 49(12), 124601 (1 December 2010). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.3520063

Published: 1 December 2010

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