Long period fiber grating for biosensing: an improved design methodology to enhance add-layer sensitivity

We present our theoretical study on the design of LPFG sensor where its add-layer sensitivity is enhanced. addlayer sensitivity quantifies the sensitivity of the sensor to the changes taking place within few tens of nanometers around the receptor molecules. Two different methodologies: the use of dual overlay layer and tailoring of the intermodal separation between two cladding modes, have been used to enhance the add-layer sensitivity. Using coupled mode analysis we compute several examples to carry out a detailed comparative analysis between the results obtained, focusing on the cladding mode near mode transition.This work was supported by Council of Scientific Research (CSIR), India during the 12th Five Year Plan. Project Nos. ESC-0102 and ESC-0110. The author I. D. Villar thankfully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (TEC2016-78047-R) and the Government of Navarre through the project with reference 2017/PI044

Employing Higher Order Cladding Modes of Fiber Bragg Grating for Analysis of Refractive Index Change in Volume and at the Surface

In this work, a detailed study on volume and surface refractive index (RI) sensitivity of cladding modes for a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) based sensor is presented. Surface RI sensitivity of the cladding mode of FBGs has been illustrated and quantified with the concept of add-layer sensitivity for the first time to the best of our knowledge. A detailed investigation of mode transition of higher-order cladding modes has been revisited and important characteristics of the cladding modes are observed which could open a new designing path of fabrication and innovative way of the use of this family of optical fiber grating-based sensors. The effect of “mode transition” of higher-order cladding modes, higher operating wavelength for respective cladding mode and “mode stretching” effects are combined together to achieve higher volume and surface RI sensitivity of cladding mode of FBG. It has been shown numerically that with proper designing, sub-nanometer (∼0.04 nm) attachment of target analyte could be recognized by cladding mode of FBG which is quite promising for application in optical fiber grating bio-sensors. This critical designing method of FBG based surface refractometer would be very helpful in case of the fabrication of highly sensitive sensors for distinct biochemical applications

Data-Driven Distributed Optical Vibration Sensors: A Review

Distributed optical vibration sensors (DOVS) have attracted much attention recently since it can be used to monitor mechanical vibrations or acoustic waves with long reach and high sensitivity. Phase-sensitive optical time domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) is one of the most commonly used DOVS schemes. For Φ-OTDR, the whole length of fiber under test (FUT) works as the sensing instrument and continuously generates sensing data during measurement. Researchers have made great efforts to try to extract external intrusions from the redundant data. High signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is necessary in order to accurately locate and identify external intrusions in Φ-OTDR systems. Improvement in SNR is normally limited by the properties of light source, photodetector and FUT. But this limitation can also be overcome by post-processing of the received optical signals. In this context, detailed methodologies of SNR enhancement post-processing algorithms in Φ-OTDR systems have been described in this paper. Furthermore, after successfully locating the external vibrations, it is also important to identify the types of source of the vibrations. Pattern classification is a powerful tool in recognizing the intrusion types from the vibration signals in practical applications. Recent reports of Φ-OTDR systems employed with pattern classification algorithms are subsequently reviewed and discussed. This thorough review will provide a design pathway for improving the performance of Φ-OTDR while maintaining the cost of the system as no additional hardware is required

Highly efficient free-space fiber coupler with 45° tilted fiber grating to access remotely placed optical fiber sensors

In this work, a 45° tilted fiber grating (TFG) is used as a waveguide coupler for the development of a portable interrogation system to access remotely placed optical fiber sensors. The TFG is directly connected to a remote fiber sensor and serves as a highly efficient light coupler between the portable interrogation unit and the sensor. Variation of strain and temperatures are measured with a standard fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor, which serves as a remotely placed optical sensor. A light beam from the interrogation unit is coupled into the TFG by a system of lenses, mirrors and optical collimator and acted as the input of the FBG. Reflected light from the FBG sensor is coupled back to the interrogation unit via the same TFG. The TFG is being used as a receiver and transmitter of light and constituent the key part of the system to connect “light source to the optical sensor” and “optical sensor to detector.” A successful demonstration of the developed system for strain and temperature sensing applications have been presented and discussed. Signal to noise ratio of the reflected light from the sensors was greater than ∼ 40 dB

Study on optimization of nano-coatings for ultra-sensitive biosensors based on long-period fiber grating

Bio-chemical sensors are expected to offer high sensitivity and specificity towards the detection of an analyte. It has been found that optical sensors based on long period fiber gratings (LPFGs) meet most of these requirements, particularly when coated with thin and high-refractive index overlays with proper bio-functionalization. In this paper, the influence of properties of the overlay material on the sensitivity of LPFG sensors to bio-analytes is analyzed. It has been observed that the sensitivity of a particular cladding mode of LPFG can be changed drastically with the adhesion of few tens of ‘nm’ of bio-layers to the surface of LPFG. “Volume refractive index sensitivity” and “add-layer sensitivity” of a particular cladding mode, dynamic range, and limit of detection of the sensors have been investigated in the context of overlay materials, bio-functionalization steps, and surrounding buffer medium. The selection criteria of the thin-film deposition technique are discussed with the aim of designing highly sensitive sensors for biological and chemical applications. Concept of optimum overlay thickness has been redefined and an effective case-specific design methodology is proposed

Sensitivity Enhancement of Turn-Around-Point Long Period Gratings By Tuning Initial Coupling Condition

Long period grating (LPG) at turn-around-point (TAP) has been studied with a view to enumerate the dependence of sensitivity of a particular resonant mode at the TAP to surrounding refractive index on the initial coupling strength. It has been shown theoretically and also validated experimentally that sensitivity can be enhanced significantly by tailoring the coupling strength of the cladding mode at the resonant wavelength near the TAP. Sensitivity characteristics have been studied for surrounding refractive index in the range 1.335-1.360, which is of interest in the field of biosensors, where the sensitivity of conventional LPGs is relatively small. We could attain a sensitivity of similar to 1850 nm/RIU using a TAP-LPG with similar to 3-dB attenuation at resonance

Realization of Long Period Fiber Grating in Reflection Mode Operating Near Turn Around Point

A method of fabrication of a reflection-type long-period fiber grating (LPFG) operating near turn around point has been presented along with theoretical details. We have shown that removal of multiple resonant bands due to unwanted phase shift introduced after cleaving the grating at an arbitrary location can be accomplished by tailoring the phase matching curve of the cladding mode. This also allows us to enhance the sensitivity of the sensor. The grating can be cleaved at any arbitrary location within the grating structure. Therefore, the probe-type sensor head can be made considerably small. We have presented performance characteristics in detail. The sensitivity of the device has been found to be similar to 1300 nm/RIU and is superior to majority of the reflection-type LPFG sensors where mostly lower order cladding modes were considered

High Sensitive Refractometric Sensor Using Symmetric Cladding Modes of an FBG Operating at Mode Transition

We report a high sensitive refractive index (RI) sensor using fiber Bragg grating (FBG) where azimuthally symmetric resonant cladding modes were used for RI sensing. We enhanced the sensitivity by tailoring the effective index of a cladding mode to an optimum value so that the mode has maximum sensitivity around a specific surrounding RI. We tailored the effective index of a clad mode by controlled deposition of a thin polymer layer having RI higher than the cladding. Experiments show that the sensitivity of cladding mode (LP0,12) of a standard FBG with overlay coating to the surrounding medium having RI around 1.333 is similar to 2600 pm/RIU. The proposed sensing mechanism will be useful for biological sensing application

Design of turn around point long period fiber grating sensor with Au-nanoparticle self monolayer

In this paper studies on the design and fabrication of a long period fiber grating (LPFG) with a self mono layer of gold nanoparticle (AuNP) has been presented. Refractive index (RI) sensitivity of a dispersed cladding mode (DCM) near turn around point (TAP) of its phase matching curve (PMC) has been investigated with and also without AuNP coated LPFG. The typical role played by the intermediate layer of AuNP on the effective index and thus on the sensitivity of the cladding mode to the surrounding RI has also been explored by carrying out coupled mode analysis of the requisite multilayer waveguide. Deposition of AuNP enhanced the sensitivity by more than a factor of 2. Measured sensitivity was found to be 3928 nm/refractive index unit (RIU) in the range of 1.3333-1.3428. (C) 2017 Published by Elsevier Ltd