Slow-light enhanced light-matter interactions with applications to gas sensing
Abstract
Optical gas detection in microsystems is limited by the short micron scale optical path length available. Recently, the concept of slow-light enhanced absorption has been proposed as a route to compensate for the short path length in miniaturized absorption cells. We extend the previous perturbation theory to the case of a Bragg stack infiltrated by a spectrally strongly dispersive gas with a narrow and distinct absorption peak. We show that considerable signal enhancement is possible. As an example, we consider a Bragg stack consisting of PMMA infiltrated by O2. Here, the required optical path length for visible to near-infrared detection (~760 nm) can be reduced by at least a factor of 10^2, making a path length of 1 mm feasible. By using this technique, optical gas detection can potentially be made possible in microsystems.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0809.3855,
title = {Slow-light enhanced light-matter interactions with applications to gas sensing},
author = {K. H. Jensen and M. N. Alam and B. Scherer and A. Lambrecht and N. A. Mortensen},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0809.3855},
year = {2008}
}