TY - GEN A1 - Fünning, Tabea A1 - Paul, Martin A1 - Manganelli, Costanza Lucia A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Mai, Andreas A1 - Steglich, Patrick T1 - Comparative simulation analysis of photonic ultrasound sensors based on silicon waveguides T2 - Scientific reports N2 - Pressure sensors based on photonic integrated circuits (PIC) offer the prospect of outstanding sensitivities, extreme miniaturization and have the potential for highly scalable production using CMOS compatible processing. PIC-based pressure sensors detect the change in optical properties, i.e. the intensity or phase of the optical carrier wave inside miniaturized waveguide structures. The detection of ultrasound is achieved by engineering the waveguide architecture such that a pressure causes a high change in the effective refractive index of the waveguide. A range of PIC-based pressure sensors have been reported, but a comparison of the sensitivity of the different approaches is not straightforward, since different pressure sensitive waveguide architectures as well as photonic layouts and measurement setups impact the performance. Additionally, the used sensitivity unit is not uniform throughout the different studies, further complicating a comparison. In this work, a detailed simulation study is carried out by finite element modeling of different pressure sensitive waveguide architectures for a consistent comparison. We analyze three different sensor architectures: (A) a free standing membrane located within a tiny air gap above the waveguide, (B) a waveguide located on top of a deflectable membrane as well as (C) a waveguide embedded inside a pressure-sensitive polymer cladding. The mechanical response of the structures and the resulting changes in mode propagation, i.e. the change of the effective refractive index, are analyzed. The waveguide sensitivities in RIU/MPa for different waveguide types (strip, slot) and polarization states (TE, TM) are compared. The results reveal inherent limitations of the different waveguide designs and create a basis for the selection of suitable designs for further ultrasound sensor development. Possibilities for enhancing waveguide sensitivity are identified and discussed. Additionally, we have shown that the studied approaches are extensible to SiN waveguides. KW - Ultrasound sensor Y1 - 2025 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-01953-9 SN - 2045-2322 VL - 15 IS - 1 SP - 1 EP - 13 PB - Springer Science and Business Media LLC CY - [London] ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schlipf, Jon A1 - Cutolo, Maria Alessandra A1 - Manganelli, Costanza Lucia A1 - Reiter, Sebastian A1 - Seibold, Götz A1 - Skibitzki, Oliver A1 - Wenger, Christian A1 - Fischer, Inga Anita T1 - Fabrication and optical characterization of CMOS-compatible honeycomb-like large-scale lattices of near-field coupled plasmonic TiN nanotriangles T2 - Advanced optical materials N2 - Honeycomb-like plasmonic titanium nitride nanotriangle arrays defined by photolithography and fabricated in a modified silicon-germanium electronic–photonic integrated circuit process in a state-of-the-art pilot line. The nanotriangle arrays are characterized in experiments and simulations. The momentum-dependent reflectance spectra exhibit not only features that are consistent with surface lattice resonances in the honeycomb lattice but also minima governed by near-field coupling of the individual nanotriangles. The optical characterization results in combination with simulation-based predictions indicate that such nanotriangle arrays are capable of supporting collective plasmonic resonances that can be described as massless Dirac particles. The fabrication approach opens up the possibility of integrating the structures into device fabrication processes, and avenues toward near-infrared sensing and communication applications are predicted. KW - Plasmonic Nanostructures KW - Optics of Nanostructures Y1 - 2025 UR - https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/adom.202403408 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/adom.202403408 SN - 2195-1071 VL - 2025 SP - 1 EP - 8 PB - Wiley-VCH CY - Weinheim ER -