Towards On-chip Mid Infrared Photonic Aerosol Spectroscopy

Abstract

© 2018 Author(s). We propose an on-chip mid-infrared (MIR) photonic spectroscopy platform for aerosol characterization to obtain highly discriminatory information on the chemistry of aerosol particles. Sensing of aerosols is crucial for various environmental, climatic, warfare threat detection, and pulmonary healthcare applications. Currently, chemical characterization of aerosols is performed using FTIR spectroscopy, yielding chemical fingerprinting because most of the vibrational and rotational transitions of chemical molecules fall in the IR range, and Raman spectroscopy. Both techniques use free space bench-top geometries. Here, we propose miniaturized on-chip MIR photonics-based aerosol spectroscopy consisting of a broadband spiral-waveguide sensor that significantly enhances the particle-light interaction to improve sensitivity. The spiral waveguides are made of a chalcogenide glass material (Ge23Sb7S70) which shows a broad transparency over the IR range (1-10 μm). We demonstrate the sensing of N-methyl aniline-based aerosol particles with the device. We anticipate that the sensor will readily complement existing photonic resonator-based particle sizing and counting techniques to develop a unified framework for on-chip integrated photonic aerosol spectroscopy.