Aluminum doped zinc oxide (AZO) coated optical fiber LMR refractometers—An experimental demonstration

Abstract

This work presents the experimental demonstration of lossy mode resonance generation by means of aluminum doped zinc oxide thin-films. The use of such material may allow to optimize the performance of LMR-based sensors, obtaining good sensitivity at lower costs than other overlays, such as those including indium. The refractometric response of the fabricated devices is explored in different spectral regions. One refractometer working in the near infrared region was fabricated, obtaining a sensitivity of 2,280 nm/RIU. A second refractometer working in the visible light spectrum was also fabricated. This second device allows to observe rough refractive index variations with the naked eye as a change of the color of the light propagating through the fiber, simplifying the setup needed for its use.

Spectral dependence of transmission losses in high-index polymer coated no-core fibers

“…The sensing mechanism for the PC-NCF is similar to that for the LMR structure and relies on the change of the thickness and refractive index contrast of the high-index coating and the intensity of the evanescent wave generated at the outer boundary of the coating layer [3,5,6]. Based on the theoretical analysis in this work, several methods of reducing the length of the PC-NCF in practical devices such as curvature sensors and optical filters exist.…”

“…OATING of optical fibers has been extensively studied as a key element of the design of various devices such as optical sensors [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10], filters [11,12] and modulators [13]. Fiber coating materials include metals, metal oxides, graphene, polymers, and many others.…”

A Comprehensive Review: Materials for the Fabrication of Optical Fiber Refractometers Based on Lossy Mode Resonance

“…Theoretical simulations reported a sensitivity of 3500 nm/RIU, increasing to 8500 nm/RIU with the utilization of a dual coating (AZO-TiO 2 ) [15]. Later, an experimental work showed the feasibility of the utilization of AZO for the generation of LMR-based refractometers by means of a 167 nm thin film [46]. This work showed the simultaneous generation of 3 LMR in the VIS-NIR range (visible and near-infrared spectrum), with a maximum sensitivity of 1153.6 nm/RIU for the lower-order resonance.…”

The impact of ZnO configuration as an external layer on the sensitivity of a bi-layer coated polymer optical fiber probe

“…ZnO and Ag nanolayers as well as their multilayer combination, due to their multifunctional properties such as band-gap tailoring, localized surface plasmon resonance effects, electrochemical stability, non-toxicity and suitability for doping are employed to coat the optical ber probe. [24][25][26][27] An Ag-ZnO nanocomposite coated on POF as an intensity modulated humidity sensor was reported by Jagtap et al They reported that the sensing mechanism is based on the adsorption of water molecules on the coated layer surface, which effectively results in changes in the boundary conditions due to the surface reactional cladding-guide interface and increases the beam connement in the ber which modulates the output intensity. 28 Therefore, the material selection and structure conguration of the coated nanostructure play a crucial role in the sensor performance.…”