Integrated silicon optofluidic ring resonator

The feasibility of an integrated silicon optofluidic ring resonator is demonstrated. Liquid core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides are used to realize a rectangular ring resonator with a multimode interference liquid core coupler between the ring and the bus waveguide. In this configuration the same waveguide used to confine the light is able to deliver the liquid sample without the need for any additional microfluidics, resulting in a very compact device with a required liquid volume of about 0.11 nl. Optical characterization shows that ring with a good quality factor (Q∼800) can be achieved in good agreement with the numerical results.