Wavelength-scale stationary-wave integrated Fourier-transform spectrometry

Etienne Le Coarer (1) , Sylvain Blaize (2) , Pierre Benech (3) , Ilan Stefanon (2) , Alain Morand (3) , Gilles Lerondel (2) , Grégory Leblond (2) , Pierre Kern (1) , Jean Marc Fedeli (4) , Pascal Royer (2)

1 LAOG - Laboratoire d'Astrophysique de Grenoble
2 LNIO - Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d'Instrumentation Optique
3 IMEP - Institut de Microélectronique, Electromagnétisme et Photonique
4 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information

Spectrometry is a general physical-analysis approach for investigating light-matter interactions. However, the complex designs of existing spectrometers render them resistant to simplification and miniaturization, both of which are vital for applications in micro- and nanotechnology and which are now undergoing intensive research. Stationary-wave integrated Fourier-transform spectrometry (SWIFTS)-an approach based on direct intensity detection of a standing wave resulting from either reflection (as in the principle of colour photography by Gabriel Lippmann) or counterpropagative interference phenomenon-is expected to be able to overcome this drawback. Here, we present a SWIFTS-based spectrometer relying on an original optical near-field detection method in which optical nanoprobes are used to sample directly the evanescent standing wave in the waveguide. Combined with integrated optics, we report a way of reducing the volume of the spectrometer to a few hundreds of cubic wavelengths. This is the first attempt, using SWIFTS, to produce a very small integrated one-dimensional spectrometer suitable for applications where microspectrometers are essential.

Mots clés: Spectroscopy; Fundamental optical physics

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]

Etienne Le Coarer, Sylvain Blaize, Pierre Benech, Ilan Stefanon, Alain Morand, et al.. Wavelength-scale stationary-wave integrated Fourier-transform spectrometry. Nature Photonics, 2007, 1 (8), pp.473 - 478. ⟨10.1038/nphoton.2007.138⟩. ⟨hal-00166129⟩