We investigated a novel sensor concept based on a coupled resonator configuration and the employment of vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) sources. Hereby, the back reflection of a sample which is placed next to the emission window of the semiconductor based laser source affects the internal resonator conditions of the VCSEL. If the operating voltage is kept constant, the internal interaction results in a change of the emitted wavelength and operating current, respectively. First experiments show a reproducible change of the operating current when the sample is moved in vertical direction by a few nm. This behavior was previously verified with a simulation based on ANSYS Lumerical by creating distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) stacks with different layers and quantifying the influence of the movable third resonator surface on the emission wavelength.
We report on a novel sensor concept based on a coupled resonator configuration and the employment of vertical cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) sources. The back reflection of a sample surface next to the emission window of the laser source affects the internal resonator conditions of the VCSEL resulting in a change of the emitted wavelength and operating current, respectively, if the operating voltage is kept constant. The behavior of the VCSEL in this scenario was investigated for both the near and the far field which offers the potential for different types of measurement applications. First experimental results show a measurable and reproducible change of the operating current when moving the sample by as little as a few nm in vertical direction. This behavior was also verified with a simulation based on ANSYS Lumerical by creating distributed Bragg reflection (DBR) stacks with different layers and quantifying the influence of the movable third resonator surface on the emission wavelength. In the next steps, the new sensor system will be integrated into an inline production chain for additive optics manufacturing to supervise the manufacturing accuracy and realize a feedback loop for the correction of process imperfections.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.