Highly sensitive silicon photonic temperature sensor based on liquid crystal filled slot waveguide directional coupler

A highly sensitive silicon photonic temperature sensor based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform has been proposed and demonstrated. A two-mode nano-slot waveguide device structure cladded with a nematic liquid crystal (LC), E7, was adopted to facilitate strong light-matter interaction and achieve high sensitivity. The fabricated sensor was characterized by measuring the optical transmission spectra at different ambient temperatures. The extracted temperature sensitivities of the E7-filled device are 0.810 nm/°C around room temperature and 1.619 nm/°C near 50°C, which match well with simulation results based on a theoretical analysis. The results obtained represent the highest experimentally demonstrated temperature sensitivity for a silicon-waveguide temperature sensor on SOI platform. The slot waveguide directional coupler device configuration provides submicron one-dimensional spatial resolution and flexible selection in LC materials for designing temperature sensitivity and operational temperature range required by specific applications.