On-chip photonic crystal-based micro-interferometers with high spectral sensitivity

On-chip micro-interferometers are introduced in which a slab photonic crystal is used as a dispersive material system to enhance the spectral sensitivity. The output interference pattern is observed along a detection plane. The systematic design of these micro-interferometers is discussed. The performance of these devices as on-chip integrated microspectrometers is investigated, and it is shown that by properly employing strong dispersive properties of photonic crystals, very compact and high resolution integrated micro-interferometer/spectrometers can be realized for lab-on-achip sensing applications.