Theoretical study on sensing performance of hydrogen annealed silicon waveguides

Abstract

Due to the surface diffusion movement of Si atom in hydrogen annealing process, the sharply formed corners of waveguides will be rounded and its sidewall profile could be reformed. In this paper, the performances of microring sensors based on three different gradual annealed structures, strip with large/small round corners and cylinder waveguide, are investigated theoretically. Characteristic parameters of sensors based on cylinder waveguide, sensitivity, Q factor, and measuring range are analyzed and compared with that of sensors based on the widely-used strip and slot waveguides. Simulation results demonstrate that the sensitivity of microring is significantly increased after annealing with comparable Q factor and measuring range. The hydrogen annealing process promises a feasible and effective method to improve the performance of biosensors in the future.

Keywords:

• waveguide structure
• hydrogen annealing
• microring sensor

Additional information

Funding

Funding. This work was supported by the major project of National Science Foundation of China [grant number 91123036], [grant number 51105267]; the Doctoral Program of the Ministry of Education [grant number 20131402110013]; the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation [grant number 2011M500542], [grant number 2012T50248]; Basic Research Program of Shanxi for Youths [grant number 2012021013-1]; and the Project of Featured Key Course Construction for Institutions of Higher Education in Shanxi Province (No. 45 [2012] Jin Jiao Cai), the Shanxi Provincial Foundation for Returned Scholars.