CMOS-compatible broadband co-propagative stationary Fourier transform spectrometer integrated on a silicon nitride photonics platform

Abstract

We demonstrate a novel type of Fourier Transform Spectrometer (FTS) that can be realized with CMOS compatible fabrication techniques. This FTS contains no moving components and is based on the direct detection of the interferogram generated by the interference of the evanescent fields of two co-propagating waveguide modes. The theoretical analysis indicates that this type of FTS inherently has a large bandwidth (>100 nm). The first prototype that is integrated on a Si₃N₄ waveguide platform is demonstrated and has an extremely small size (0.1 mm²). We introduce the operation principle and report on the preliminary experiments. The results show a moderately high resolution (6 nm) which is in good agreement with the theoretical prediction.