Two-wavelength non-dispersive infrared sensing systems using stacked electrically controllable photonic-crystal band-pass filters

Abstract

We present a scheme of non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) sensing utilizing stacked, two-wavelength electrically controllable bandpass filters that integrate multiple quantum wells (MQWs) and photonic crystals. By appropriately designing the MQWs and photonic crystals, we realize electrically controllable filters that exhibit symmetric, narrow-band transmittance spectra with high transmittance at two target wavenumbers (1035 cm-1 and 1085 cm-1) and demonstrate independent modulation of the transmittance at each target wavenumber when the two filters are stacked. In addition, by using the proposed stacked filters, we construct two-wavelength mechanical-chopper-free NDIR systems with a single detector and demonstrate its ability to robustly measure the gas concentration even when the absolute optical power incident on the detector is varied.