Tilted Fiber Bragg Gratings:Principle and Sensing Applications

In this paper,the mode coupling mechanism of tilted fiber Bragg gratings(TFBGs)is briefly introduced at first.And a general review on the fabrication,theoretical and experimental research development of TFBGs is presented from a worldwide perspective,followed by an introduction of our current research work on TFBGs at the Institute of Modern Optics,Nankai University(IMONK),including TFBG sensors for single-parameter measurements,temperature cross sensitivity of TFBG sensors,and TFBG-based interrogation technique.Finally,we would make a summary of the related key techniques and a remark on prospects of the research and applications of TFBGs.

Cascaded tilted fiber Bragg grating for enhanced refractive index sensing

We proposed and experimentally demonstrated a cascaded tilted fiber Bragg grating(TFBG) for enhanced refractive index sensing. The TFBG is UV-inscribed in series in ordinary single-mode fiber(SMF) and reduced-diameter SMF with the same tilt angle, and then excites two sets of superposed spectral combs of cladding modes. The cascaded TFBG with total length of 18 mm has a much wider wavelength range over 100 nm and narrower wavelength separation than that of a TFBG only in the SMF, enabling an enlarged range and a higher accuracy of refractive index measurement. The fabricated TFBG with the merits of enhanced sensing capability and temperature self-calibration presents great potentials in the biochemical sensing applications.

All-fiber ellipsometer for nanoscale dielectric coatings

Multiple mode resonance shifts in tilted fiber Bragg gratings(TFBGs)are used to simultaneously measure the thickness and the refractive index of TiO_(2) thin films formed by Atomic Layer Deposition(ALD)on optical fibers.This is achieved by comparing the experimental wavelength shifts of 8 TFBG resonances during the deposition process with simulated shifts from a range of thicknesses(T)and values of the real part of the refractive index(n).The minimization of an error function computed for each(n,T)pair then provides a solution for the thickness and refractive index of the deposited film and,a posteriori,to verify the deposition rate throughout the process from the time evolution of the wavelength shift data.Validations of the results were carried out with a conventional ellipsometer on flat witness samples deposited simultaneously with the fiber and with scanning electron measurements on cut pieces of the fiber itself.The final values obtained by the TFBG(n=2.25,final thickness of 185 nm)were both within 4%of the validation measurements.This approach provides a method to measure the formation of nanoscale dielectric coatings on fibers in situ for applications that require precise thicknesses and refractive indices,such as the optical fiber sensor field.Furthermore,the TFBG can also be used as a process monitor for deposition on other substrates for deposition methods that produce uniform coatings on dissimilar shaped substrates,such as ALD.

Experimental research on cholesterol solution concentration sensing based on tilted fiber Bragg grating

The cholesterol solution concentration sensing characteristics based on tilted fiber Bragg grating(TFBG) are investigated by means of theoretical analysis and experiments. We prepare two groups of cholesterol solutions with the same concentration range and different refractive index ranges. The sensitivity of the two groups of solutions was 11.83 pm·m L/mg and 124.79 pm·m L/mg, respectively. The results show that the sensitivity of cholesterol solution can be improved by adjusting the refractive index range. This conclusion is valuable for measuring the concentration of fat-soluble solution.

Towards a fast and stable tachypnea monitor:a C_(60)-Lys enabled optical fiber sensor for humidity tracking in breath progress

The pandemic of respiratory diseases enlightened people that monitoring respiration has promising prospects in averting many fatalities by tracking the development of diseases.However,the response speed of current optical fiber sensors is still insufficient to meet the requirements of high-frequency respiratory detection during respiratory failure.Here,a scheme for a fast and stable tachypnea monitor is proposed utilizing a water-soluble C_(60)-Lys ion compound as functional material for the tracking of humidity change in the progression of breath.The polarization of C_(60)-Lys can be tuned by the ambient relative humidity change,and an apparent refractive index alteration can be detected due to the small size effect.In our experiments,C_(60)-Lys is conformally and uniformly deposited on the surface of a tilted fiber Bragg grating(TFBG)to fabricate an ultra-fast-response,high-sensitivity,and long-term stable optical fiber humidity sensor.A relative humidity(RH)detecting sensitivity of 0.080 dB/%RH and the equilibrium response time and recovery time of 1.85 s and 1.58 s are observed,respectively.Also,a linear relation is detected between the resonance intensity of the TFBG and the environment RH.In a practical breath monitoring experiment,the instantaneous response time and recovery time are measured as 40 ms and 41 ms,respectively,during a 1.5 Hz fast breath process.Furthermore,an excellent time stability and high repeatability are exhibited in experiments conducted over a range of 7 days.