Chalcogenide glasses, amorphous compounds containing the chalcogens S, Se, or Te, are emerging as ideal materials for nonlinear photonics in the infrared given their large Kerr nonlinearity, minimal two photon absorption, and exceptional broadband optical transparency. In this talk, we will discuss characterization and optimization of optical nonlinearity in chalcogenide glasses via a high-throughput screening method. We further implement the optimized nonlinear chalcogenide media to enable broadband on-chip spectroscopic sensing. Specifically, we demonstrated a supercontinuum source integrated on-chip spectroscopic sensor, where we leverage nonlinear Ge22Sb18Se60 chalcogenide glass waveguides as a unified platform for both broadband supercontinuum generation and chemical detection. This work represents an important step towards realizing a miniaturized spectroscopic sensing system based on photonic chips.
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