Highly Sensitive Refractive Index Sensor Based on Polymer Long-Period Waveguide Grating With Liquid Cladding

Abstract

We propose a novel structure and unique sensing mechanism bio-chemical sensor which is fabricated by a polymer long-period waveguide grating with the detection liquid directly as the waveguide cladding. Quantitative detection is realized from analyzing the output absorption spectrum and resonant wavelength shift related to the liquid detection concentration. The proposed polymer long-period waveguide grating based liquid refractive-index sensor is developed experimentally, the high sensitivity of 1.01 × 104 nm/RIU is achieved, and the temperature stability coefficient is 1.47 nm/°C. Theoretically and experimentally, this work has been demonstrated to have potential application in chemical and biological detections and may provide an important technical support for solving today’s increasingly serious civil problems such as food safety and drug safety, which will also have the important scientific significance and application prospects.