Fluidic Integration of Nanophotonic Devices Using Decomposable Polymers

TL;DR

This paper presents a method for integrating nanophotonic devices with fluidic channels using decomposable polymers, enabling precise delivery of fluorescent samples to optical sensors on silicon nitride substrates.

Contribution

It introduces a novel fluidic integration technique utilizing polynorbornene-based decomposable polymers for nanophotonic device applications.

Findings

Successful fabrication of micrometer-scale fluidic channels

Effective delivery of fluorescent samples to nanophotonic sensors

Demonstration of fluidic integration with silicon nitride waveguides

Abstract

Polynorbornene-based decomposable polymer which can be patterned with ultraviolet or electron-beam radiation is used to create micrometer-scale fluidic channels. Silicon nitride substrates are used to fabricate nanophotonic wavegide and resonators operating in the visible range of the spectrum. Fluidic channels generated by thermally decomposing the polymer through the oxide cladding is used to deliver ultra-small amounts of florescent samples to the optical sensors.