Mid-Infrared Integrated Photonic Devices for Biomedical Sensing Applications

Mid-infrared absorption spectroscopy is the most widely used technique for detecting the molecular signatures of an unknown sample using their fingerprint absorption. Waveguide evanescent field based spectroscopy can detect analytes at very low concentrations using their absorption fingerprints, potentially offering high sensitivity and selectivity over a wide range of compounds without labelling.

The ideal molecular "fingerprint" region for biochemical analysis is dominated by the Mid-IR spectral region from 2 micrometres - 13 micrometres. This project will explore novel Mid-IR waveguide based integrated photonic devices and will help realise photonic lab on-chip platform for biomedical diagnostic applications. Specifically this will involve the fabrication and characterisation of waveguides (using novel Mid-IR materials) and waveguide based devices such as ring resonators, on-chip sources and Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and their integration. The project will also involve electromagnetic modelling of some of these devices for optimising the performance and for designing photonic circuit layouts.