Cavity-Enhanced IR Absorption in Planar Chalcogenide Glass Microdisk Resonators: Experiment and Analysis

Planar microdisk optical resonators fabricated from Ge₂₃Sb₇S₇₀ chalcogenide glass on a silicon substrate are applied for cavity-enhanced spectroscopic measurement of chemical molecular absorption fingerprint. A 0.02 cm^{- 1} detection limit for these devices is demonstrated. This detection limit represents a threefold improvement as compared to a straight waveguide sensor, while the physical device length is reduced by 40-fold. The reduction in device footprint with enhanced sensitivity makes the structure attractive for ldquosensor-on-a-chiprdquo device applications. We also present a design optimization approach for cavity-enhanced IR absorption spectroscopy using traveling-wave resonators, which indicates that further performance improvement can be achieved in optimally coupled, low-loss resonant cavities.