Organic photo detectors for an integrated thin-film spectrometer

We introduce a thin-film spectrometer that is based on the superprism effect in photonic crystals. While the reliable fabrication of two and three dimensional photonic crystals is still a challenge, the realization of one-dimensional photonic crystals as thin-film stacks is a relatively easy and inexpensive approach. Additionally, dispersive thin-film stacks offer the possibility to custom-design the dispersion profile according to the application. The thin-film stack is designed Such that light incident at an angle experiences a wavelength-dependent spatial beam shift at the output surface. We propose the monolithic integration of organic photo detectors to register the spatial beam position and thus determine the beam wavelength. This thin-film spectrometer has a size of approximately 5 mm(2). We demonstrate that the output position of a laser beam is determined with a resolution of at least 20 mu m by the fabricated organic photo detectors. Depending on the design of the thin-film filter the wavelength resolution of the proposed spectrometer is at least 1 nm. Possible applications for the proposed thin-film spectrometer are in the field of absorption spectroscopy, e.g., for gas analysis or biomedical applications.