Nick Clark1, Iain F Crowe2, Siham Hussein2, Matthew P Hallsall2 and Aravind Vijayaraghavan1
1 - School of Materials and National Graphene Institute
2 - Photon Science Institute and School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering 
     University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK 

There are distinct and obvious technological advantages to be gained by the integration of graphene with silicon photonics devices, but understanding the nature of the light-matter interaction in these systems is crucial if this potential is to be realised. Our immediate focus is trying to understand the limitations on the practical sensitivity of silicon photonic cavities where graphene acts as a sensitization layer with improved reactivity over the silicon surface. We examined the near-IR light-matter interaction for graphene integrated cavity ring resonators based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) race-track waveguides1. By measuring the TE mode linear absorption coefficient of graphene and combining this with a model of the coupling strengths variation with height, we are able to place limits on the graphene cavity length for optical sensing applications.
1 - Crowe, I. F. et. al., Optics Express, 22, 15, 18625 (2014) 

Nick Clark is currently a postgraduate student in the School of Materials and the School of Chemistry at the University of Manchester. He received his MPhys degree in Physics from the University of Manchester (2011). His research interests include the fabrication and applications of graphene membranes, the mechanical properties of graphene, and the development of novel sensing systems based on graphene functionalized photonic waveguides.