Title :
Refractive index sensing properties of long-period fibre grating with sol-gel derived coatings
Author :
Davies, Edward ; Zhang, Lin ; Bennion, Ian ; Viitala, Reeta ; Salomäki, Mikko ; Areva, Sami
Author_Institution :
Photonics Res. Group, Aston Univ., Birmingham
Abstract :
Long-period fibre gratings (LPGs) have previously been used to detect quantities such as temperature, strain and refractive index (RI). The responsivity to surrounding refractive index means that, potentially, LPGs could be realised as optical biosensors for applications in biochemical and biomedical application areas. We report here to our best knowledge the first investigation on refractive index sensing properties of LPGs with sol-gel derived titanium and silicon oxide coatings. It is revealed that the RI sensitivity of an LPG is affected by both the thickness and the index value of the coating; the coating with higher index and thickness will enhance the LPG RI sensitivity significantly. The surrounding refractive index induced LPG resonance shift has been evaluated over the LPGspsila most sensitive RI region from 1.42 to 1.44. We have identified that, in this region, the uncoated LPG has an RI sensitivity of (-673.0 plusmn 0.4)nm/uri (unit of refractive index) while the LPG coated with titanium oxide exhibits a sensitivity as high as (-1067.15 plusmn 0.04)nm/uri.
Keywords :
diffraction gratings; fibre optic sensors; refractive index measurement; SiO2; TiO2; biochemical application; biomedical application; long-period fibre gratings; optical biosensors; silicon oxide coatings; sol-gel derived titanium oxide coatings; Biomedical optical imaging; Capacitive sensors; Coatings; Fiber gratings; Optical refraction; Optical sensors; Optical variables control; Refractive index; Temperature sensors; Titanium;
Conference_Titel :
Sensors, 2008 IEEE
Conference_Location :
Lecce
Print_ISBN :
978-1-4244-2580-8
Electronic_ISBN :
1930-0395
DOI :
10.1109/ICSENS.2008.4716437