Theoretical investigation on refractive index sensor based on Bragg grating in micro/nanofiber

Ruibing Liang, Qizhen Sun*

The College of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China *E-mail: qzsun@mail.hust.edu.cn

Jianghai Wo, Deming Liu

The College of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering line Huazhong University of Science and Technology Wuhan, China

AbstractA refractometric sensor based on fiber Bragg

grating(FBG) in micro/nano-fiber(MNF) is proposed. The performance of sensing the variation of ambient refractive index is simulated, and the simulation results demonstrate that the FBG in MNF can achieve a sensitivity as high as 993nm/RIU.
Keywords-micro/nano-fiber(MNF);fiber bragg grating(FBG);ref ractive index sensing

II.

THEORY

I.

INTRODUCTION

The refractive index (RI) sensing has important meaning in measuring gas and aqueous solution as well as monitoring the compound materials solidification. Long-period fiber gratings (LPG) have high sensitivity to the refractive index of the ambient medium, however, their multiple resonance peaks and broad transmission resonance features limit the measurement accuracy and their multiplexing capabilities. High sensitivity evanescent field fiber Bragg grating sensor has been reported by etching the fiber [1,2], but at the same time the mechanical strength and durability of the sensing device are greatly reduced Subwavelength and nanometer diameter optical fiber have the optical property of enhanced evanescent fields, which makes it very sensitive to the index change of the ambient and superficial medium [3]. A microfluidic refractometric sensor based on grating in optical fiber microwires is demonstrated in Ref [4], gratings can be manufactured by wrapping an optical fiber microwire on a microstructured rod; Femtosecond laser is used to fabricate fiber Bragg grating in microfiber for refractive index sensing [5]. However, the optical fiber's size is only stay in a micron dimension. In this paper, we will furtherly reduce optical fiber's size to nanometer, integrating the enhanced evanescent fields of micro/nano-fiber (MNF) with wavelength choice features of FBG, a refractometric sensor based on fiber Bragg grating in micro/nano-fiber is presented, analyze the refractive index sensing characteristic of FBG in MNF theoretically, discuss the influence of fibers diameter to the refractive index sensing sensitivity, in order to provide the theory basis for realizing the refractive index sensing application of FBG in MNF.

A. Characteristic of Micro/nano-fibers(MNF) Micro/nanometer fibers have the optical property of enhanced evanescent fields, the radius is smaller, the fraction of evanescent fields is higher. When the fiber diameter decreases to 200nm at 633-nm wavelength, more than 90% power moves out of the fiber and is guided as evanescent waves [6]. A high fraction of evanescent fields makes the MNF more open to ambient changes. The change of the surrounding refractive index will change the effective index of the propagating mode guided along the MNF and the profile of the evanescent fields, then the power distribution around the waveguide will be changed. B. Fiber Bragg grating(FBG) Fiber Bragg grating (FBG) is one of the basic optical fiber components that have wide applications. The basic principle of operation commonly used in FBG-based sensors is to monitor the wavelength shift of the returned Bragg signal resulting from the changes in the measurement. The Bragg wavelength of a grating is given by: B = 2neff (1) Where neff is the mode effective index, is the period of the Bragg grating. C. FBG in MNF for refracti ve index sensing The sensitivity of FBG based refractive index sensors depend on the change in effective index for the waveguided mode. As FBG is not directly exposed to the ambient medium, it is intrinsically insensitive to the external refractive index change. Therefore we proposed a new refractometric sensor based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in micro/nano-fiber (MNF). As shown in Fig 1, a certain length of a micro/nanofiber with inscribed Bragg grating is exposed to or immersed in the solution detected. By using the optical property of enhanced evanescent fields of MNF, when there is an refractive index change of the ambient medium, the mode effective index of guided light in MNF is changed, resulting in the Bragg wavelength shift.

978-1-4244-6554-5/11/$26.00 2011 IEEE

Fig.1 Schematic diagram of the FBG in MNF for refractive index sensing

III.

NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS AND ANALYSIS Fig.3 .The linear fitting curve of sensing function for the FBG in MNF with the radius of 400nm

In this part, we use the OptiGrating software to simulate and analyze the refractive index sensor based on FBG in MNF. A. The effect of the radius of the MNF to the refractive index sensitivity The radius of the micro/nano-fiber decreases from 1 m to 0.3 m with the gap of 0.1 m and the refractive index of the surrounding media increases from 1 to 1.45. We observe the shift of the Bragg wavelength and compare the sensitivity of the refractive index sensing when the radius of the micro/nanofiber changes. Here we assume the optical fiber refractive index is 1.46, the radius of ambient media is 8 m , the period of the Bragg grating is 0.5618 m , and the length of the Bragg grating is 50mm. Fig 2 plots the Bragg wavelength of the reflected spectrum from the grating sensor as the index of the surrounding medium is changed. Its clear that the Bragg wavelength is a function of the ambient refractive index. The reflection spectrum red-shifts as the ambient refractive index increases. When the ambient medium index is small, the increase of the Bragg wavelength is slow. As the ambient medium index reaches to the core index, the change rate in wavelength also increases and approaches the linear variation. Meanwhile, the radius of the fiber is smaller, the change of the Bragg wavelength is greater as the ambient medium index changes, and the range of linear variation is wider too. Thus it can be concluded that the sensitivity of the sensor based on FBG in MNF is increasing with the decrease of the radius of MNF, and the refractive index linear measurement is easy to realize.

As shown in Fig 3, the linear fitting result RI sensing is described as: B = 993.350na + 179.807 (2) And the linear fitting's correlation coefficient is 0.9985. The sensitivity of the investigated sensors can be obtained as: B (3) S = Where S is the refractive index sensitivity, B is the Bragg wavelength na is the ambient medium index. From equation (2) and (3), we can obtain that the sensitivity is 993.35nm/RIU.
na

C. Comparison between the FBG in MNF and ordinary FBG To describe the improvement of refractive index sensing performance of FBG in MNF clearly, the same FBG, written in standard single-mode telecommunication fiber (Corning SMF28) of which cladding and core diameter are 125 m and 8.2 m respectively, is employed to make a comparison. Ordinary FBG is not directly exposed to the surrounding medium, so refractive index sensing can be realized only by etching the fiber cladding after the FBG created. The sensitivity of this sensor increases as the diameter of fiber cladding is decreased. Here we numerically simulate the fiber with completely etched cladding. As shown in Fig 4, the variation trend of Bragg wavelength along with the medium refractive index is consistent with FBG in MNF, but the variation velocity of FBG in MNF is much faster. Fig 5 displays the sensing characteristic of the ordinary FBG, with the RI changing from 1.3 to 1.4. The linear fitting curve can be described as follows: B = 5.845na + 1626.021 (4) The linear fitting's correlation coefficient is 0.973.The sensitivity of RI sensing is only 5.845nm/RIU.

Fig.2 Simulation results of RI sensing performance for FBG in MNF with different radius

B. Refractive index sensing characteristic simulations of FBG in MNF with the radius of 400nm Due to the limit of the software, it is unable to obtain the data of refractive index sensing with radius smaller than 400nm.Therefore we take the FBG in micro/nano-fiber with the radius of 400nm as an example to analyze the RI sensing characteristics.

Fig.4. Simulation results of RI sensing performance for ordinary FBG

structure, high-sensitivity and excellent flexibility, such novel sensor based on FBG in MNF has a great potential value in some special application occasion of medical, biological and materials. ACKNOWLEDGMENT This work is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (N0. 60907037 and 60937002) and Innovation Foundation of Huazhong University of Science and Technology (No. Q2009026).
Fig.5. The linear fitting curve of sensing function for ordinary FBG

REFERENCES
[1] Wei Liang, Yanyi Huang,Yong Xu,Reginald K.Lee,Ammon Yariv, Highly sensitive fiber Bragg grating refractive index sensors,Applied Physics Letters,vol.86,pp.151122,2005 Athanasios N.Chryssis,Sang M.Lee,Sang B.Lee,Simarjeet S.Saini,High Sensitivity Evanescent Field Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor,IEEE Photonics Technology Letters,vol.17,pp.1253-1255,2005 L.M.Tong,R.R.Gattass,J.B.Ashcom,S.L.He,J.Y.Lou,M.Y.Shen,I.Maxwe ll,E.Mazur,Subwavelength-diameter silica wires for low-loss optical wave guiding,Nature,vol. 426,pp.816-819,2003 Fei Xu,Gilberto Brambilla,Yanqing Lu, A microfluidic refractometric sensor based on gratings in optical fibre microwires, Optics Express,vol. 17,pp.20866-20871,2009 X.Fang, C.R.Liao,D.N.Wang, Femtosecond laser fabricated fiber Bragg grating in microfiber for refractive index sensing,Optics Letters,vol.35, pp.1007-1009,2010 L.M.Tong,J.Y.Lou,E.Mazur, Single-mode guiding properties of subwavelength-diameter silica and silicon wire waveguides,Optics Express,vol.12,pp.1025-1035,2004.

From the discussion above, we can see that the FBG in MNF with the radius of 400nm can achieve a sensitivity as high as 993nm/RIU, which is 170 times higher than the ordinary FBG, and the correlation coefficient is also greatly improved to approximately 1, which is significant to precisely calibrate. Thus, the sensor based on FBG in MNF has the good application value in the actual refractive index sensing. IV.
CONCLUSION

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[4]

In conclusion, we have demonstrated the refractive index sensor based on fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in micro/nano-fiber (MNF).The performance of sensing the variation of ambient refractive index is simulated. Comparing to ordinary etched FBG, The FBG in MNF with the radius of 400nm can achieve a sensitivity as high as 993nm/RIU, the sensitivity increases nearly 170 times, which displays an excellent sensing sensitivity and linearity. Due to the advantages of micro-

[5]

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