Ultrathin Optics-Free Spectrometer with Monolithically Integrated LED Excitation

A semiconductor spectrometer chip with a monolithically integrated light-emitting diode was demonstrated. The spectrometer design was based on a computational reconstruction algorithm and a series of absorptive spectral filters directly built in to the photodetectors’ active regions. The result is the elimination of the need to employ external optics to control the incident angle of light. In the demonstration, an array of gallium nitride (GaN) based photodetectors with wavelength selectivity generated via the principle of local strain engineering were designed and fabricated. Additionally, a GaN based LED was monolithically integrated. An optical blocking structure was used to suppress the LED-photodetector interference and was shown to be essential for the spectroscopic functionality. A proof of concept using a reflection spectroscopy configuration was experimentally conducted to validate the feasibly of simultaneously operating the LED excitation light source and the photodetectors. Spectral reconstruction using a non-negative least squares (NNLS) algorithm enhanced with orthogonal matching pursuit was shown to reconstruct the signal from the reflection spectroscopy. Optics-free operation was also demonstrated.