Silicon micromachined hollow optical waveguides for sensing applications

Abstract

Novel micromachined optical waveguides useful for sensing applications are proposed. The waveguide is designed as hollow-core antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) and can be easily fabricated using standard silicon micromachining techniques. The hollow structure permits to use the core to confine simultaneously the light and the substance to be probed, leading to an increase of the interaction efficiency. Numerical simulations, performed using finite element method technique, show that with a suitable design these waveguides can be used in sensing applications, where the substances under test can be gases or liquids.