title: Ring-coupled Mach-Zehnder interferometer optimized for sensing.
abstract: We demonstrate numerically that the theoretical maximum sensitivity of a ring-coupled Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) optimized as a sensor is about 30% greater than the optimized sensitivity of a conventional single-bus ring sensor with an identical ring perimeter and loss. The ring-coupled MZI sensor also achieves its greater sensitivity with a 25% lower circulating power, which is useful for the suppression of undesirable nonlinear effects.
authors.affiliation: Edward L. Ginzton Laboratory, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA. terrel@stanford.edu
authors.forename: Matthew
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Terrel
authors.forename: Michel J F
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Digonnet
authors.forename: Shanhui
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fan
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D007368:Interferometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D055095:Optics and Photonics; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity