Spectroscopy assembly including optical ring resonators and at least one waveguide on a common substrate

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9618392-B2
Application number	US-201214112608-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 27, 2012
Priority date	Apr 29, 2011
Publication date	Apr 11, 2017
Grant date	Apr 11, 2017

Abstract

A spectroscopy assembly having a first and a second optical ring resonator, each provided with a material having an intensity-dependent refraction index. The spectroscopy assembly further includes at least one waveguide, which is guided along the optical ring resonator at a distance such that the light of a continuous wave laser guided in the waveguide can be coupled into the optical ring resonator, and a frequency comb generated from the light of the continuous wave laser in the optical ring resonator can be coupled out of the waveguide. The optical ring resonators and the at least one waveguide are provided on a common substrate.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A spectroscopy assembly comprising:
first and second optical ring resonators each comprising a material with an intensity-dependent refraction index; and
at least one waveguide which is guided along the optical ring resonators at such a distance that light of a continuous wave laser guided in the at least one waveguide is coupled into the optical ring resonators and a frequency comb generated from the light of the continuous wave laser in the optical ring resonators is coupled out into the at least one waveguide;
wherein the optical ring resonators and the at least one waveguide are on a common substrate; and
wherein the first optical ring resonator has a first free spectral range and the second optical ring resonator has a second free spectral range, and the first free spectral range differs from the second free spectral range by less than 1/100 of a mean free spectral range of the first and second optical ring resonators.

2. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the common substrate is a semiconductor chip.

3. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the common substrate comprises silicon.

4. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one waveguide comprises a common waveguide, the common waveguide coupling in continuous wave laser radiation into both of the optical ring resonators.

5. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one waveguide comprises a first waveguide and a second waveguide, the first waveguide being associated with the first optical ring resonator and the second waveguide being associated with the second optical ring resonator.

6. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 5 , wherein the at least one waveguide further comprises a common waveguide on the common substrate that is split into the first waveguide and the second waveguide on a coupling-in side for the light of the continuous wave laser.

7. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the at least one waveguide comprises a first waveguide and a second waveguide for each of the first and second optical ring resonators, the first waveguide of each of the first and second optical ring resonators being used for pumping the first and second optical ring resonators with the light of the continuous wave laser, and the second waveguide of each of the first and second optical ring resonators being used for coupling a frequency comb out of the first and second optical ring resonators.

8. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including a common continuous wave laser or two separate continuous wave lasers for pumping the first and second optical ring resonators.

9. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including at least one continuous wave laser on the common substrate.

10. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including at least one optical detector on the common substrate.

11. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the following are microstructures on the common substrate:
(a) the first and second optical ring resonators,
(b) the at least one waveguide and at least one continuous wave laser, and
(c) at least one optical detector.

12. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including an optical amplifier for following the continuous wave laser.

13. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including a sample chamber supplied via microfluid channels.

14. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , further including a multimode pumping source with two or more longitudinal modes with a tunable mode distance for pumping at least one of the first and second optical ring resonators.

15. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first and second optical ring resonators is configured for coupling two or more mode families of different free spectral ranges by a geometry of the first and second optical ring resonators, by corrugations of a resonator wall, or by a non-circular deformation of the geometry of the first and second optical ring resonators.

16. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the first and second optical ring resonators differ from each other by the material thereof and/or by having a different coating on the material thereof.

17. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein the material of the first and second optical ring resonators comprises SiN or HfO 2 .

18. The spectroscopy assembly according to claim 1 , wherein each of the first and second optical ring resonators has a diameter of 120 to 160 μm.

19. A spectroscopy assembly comprising:
first and second optical ring resonators each comprising a material with an intensity-dependent refraction index; and
at least one waveguide which is guided along the optical ring resonators at such a distance that light of a continuous wave laser guided in the at least one waveguide is coupled into the optical ring resonators and a frequency comb generated from the light of the continuous wave laser in the optical ring resonators is coupled out into the at least one waveguide;
wherein the optical ring resonators and the at least one waveguide are on a common substrate; and
two photodetectors, wherein light from the first and second optical ring resonators can be fed to both photodetectors, wherein, a sample chamber is provided in only one of two paths of light leading to one of the two photodetectors.

20. A spectroscopy assembly comprising:
first and second optical ring resonators each comprising a material with an intensity-dependent refraction index; and
at least one waveguide which is guided along the optical ring resonators at such a distance that light of a continuous wave laser guided in the at least one waveguide is coupled into the optical ring resonators and a frequency comb generated from the light of the continuous wave laser in the optical ring resonators is coupled out into the at least one waveguide;
wherein the optical ring resonators and the at least one waveguide are on a common substrate; and
a sample chamber arranged such that said frequency comb is guided from said optical ring resonators to the sample chamber via the at least one waveguide.

Assignees

• Kippenberg Tobias
• Holzwarth Ronald
• Menlo Sys Gmbh
• Ecole Polytechnique Fed Lausanne Epfl

Inventors

• Kippenberg Tobias
• Holzwarth Ronald

Classifications

• G01J3/4532

  Devices of compact or symmetric construction (G01J3/4531 takes precedence) · CPC title

• G02B6/12007

  forming wavelength selective elements, e.g. multiplexer, demultiplexer · CPC title

• G01J3/4531

  Devices without moving parts · CPC title

• G02B6/29353

  with a wavelength selective element in at least one light guide interferometer arm, e.g. grating, interference filter, resonator · CPC title

• G01J3/457

  Correlation spectrometry, e.g. of the intensity (G01J3/453 takes precedence) · CPC title