volume | PIER Journals

Abstract

The environment is crucial to maintaining a healthy lifestyle and ensuring the continued existence of life on Earth. Nonetheless, throughout the past several years, environmental pollution has increased significantly due to the rapid growth of the global population and technological advancement. Consequently, numerous new sensors and techniques have been developed to effectively detect different types of environmental pollutants. Among all the various methods proposed for environmental monitoring, photonic crystal (PhC) devices have demonstrated great potential in sensing applications due to their high sensitivity to refractive index change, visual detectability, room-temperature operability, and easy portability. Recently, integrated mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonics have gained considerable attention because most gases exhibit a characteristic absorption peak in the mid-IR range. As a result, Mid-IR photonic crystals offer enormous potential for novel applications in optical interconnects and sensing. In this work, we propose a novel highly-sensitive mid-infrared photonic crystal-based slotted-waveguide coupled-cavity sensor to behave as a refractive index sensing device at a mid-infrared wavelength of 3.9 µm. The proposed sensor is simulated using Plane Wave Expansion (PWE) method and Finite-Difference Time-Domain (FDTD) algorithm. The high performance and simple design of the proposed sensor make it a promising candidate for environmental monitoring applications.

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Mr. Mouad Mezhoud

Dr. Hadjira Tayoub

Dr. Ahlam Harhouz

Dr. Farida Kebaili

Professor Abdesselam Hocini