On-Chip Optical Transduction Scheme for Graphene Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems in Silicon-Photonic Platform

TL;DR

This paper proposes an on-chip optical transduction method for graphene NEMS using silicon photonics, demonstrating high sensitivity through numerical analysis of MZI and resonator configurations.

Contribution

It introduces a novel optical transduction scheme for graphene NEMS on silicon photonic platforms, analyzing three configurations for optimal sensitivity.

Findings

A ring-loaded MZI with Q-factor 2400 achieves 28 fm/Hz^0.5 displacement sensitivity.

The scheme attains 6.5E-6 %/Hz^0.5 strain sensitivity.

Resonance combined with phase sensitivity enhances transduction performance.

Abstract

We present a scheme for on-chip optical transduction of strain and displacement of Graphene-based Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems (NEMS). A detailed numerical study on the feasibility of three silicon-photonic integrated circuit configurations is presented: Mach-Zehnder Interferometer(MZI), micro-ring resonator and ring-loaded MZI. An index-sensing based technique using a Mach-Zehnder Interferometer loaded with a ring resonator with a moderate Q-factor of 2400 can yield a sensitivity of 28 fm/sqrt(Hz), and 6.5E-6 %/sqrt(Hz) for displacement and strain respectively. Though any phase sensitive integrated photonic device could be used for optical transduction, here we show that optimal sensitivity is achievable by combining resonance with phase sensitivity.