Interrogation of a Long-Period Grating Sensor by a Thermally Tunable Arrayed Waveguide Grating

An interrogation technique for a long-period grating (LPG) sensor is studied theoretically and experimentally. By employing a thermally tunable arrayed waveguide grating (AWG), the center wavelength of the LPG sensor is successfully measured using the linear temperature dependence of the AWG transmission wavelengths. Initial results show that the proposed interrogation technique can provide a resolution of 1 pm and interrogation range of 25 nm. Furthermore, this technique has the potential of being packaged into a low-cost and compact-size device.