In order to enable optical systems to operate with a high degree of compactness and reliability it is necessary to combine large number of optical functions in small monolithic structures. A development, somewhat reminiscent of that that took place in Integrated Electronics, is now beginning to take place in optics. The initial challenge in this emerging field, known appropriately as "Integrated Optics", is to demonstrate the possibility of performing basic optical functions such as light generation, coupling, modulation, and guiding in Integrated Optical configurations. The talk will review the main theoretical and experimental developments to date in Integrated Optics. Specific topics to be discussed include: Material considerations, guiding mechanisms, modulation, coupling and mode losses. The fabrication and applications of periodic thin film structures will be discussed.

Integrated optics

Graphene plasmons were predicted to possess ultra-strong field confinement and very low damping at the same time, enabling new classes of devices for deep subwavelength metamaterials, single-photon nonlinearities, extraordinarily strong light-matter interactions and nano-optoelectronic switches. While all of these great prospects require low damping, thus far strong plasmon damping was observed, with both impurity scattering and many-body effects in graphene proposed as possible explanations. With the advent of van der Waals heterostructures, new methods have been developed to integrate graphene with other atomically flat materials. In this letter we exploit near-field microscopy to image propagating plasmons in high quality graphene encapsulated between two films of hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN). We determine dispersion and particularly plasmon damping in real space. We find unprecedented low plasmon damping combined with strong field confinement, and identify the main damping channels as intrinsic thermal phonons in the graphene and dielectric losses in the h-BN. The observation and in-depth understanding of low plasmon damping is the key for the development of graphene nano-photonic and nano-optoelectronic devices.

Highly confined low-loss plasmons in graphene-boron nitride heterostructures

Optical fiber gratings have developed into a mature technology with a wide range of applications in various areas, including physical sensing for temperature, strain, acoustic waves and pressure. All of these applications rely on the perturbation of the period or refractive index of a grating inscribed in the fiber core as a transducing mechanism between a quantity to be measured and the optical spectral response of the fiber grating. This paper presents a relatively recent variant of the fiber grating concept, whereby a small tilt of the grating fringes causes coupling of the optical power from the core mode into a multitude of cladding modes, each with its own wavevector and mode field shape. The main consequence of doing so is that the differential response of the modes can then be used to multiply the sensing modalities available for a single fiber grating and also to increase the sensor resolution by taking advantage of the large amount of data available. In particular, the temperature cross-sensitivity and power source fluctuation noise inherent in all fiber grating designs can be completely eliminated by referencing all the spectral measurements to the wavelength and power level of the core mode back-reflection. The mode resonances have a quality factor of 105, and they can be observed in reflection or transmission. A thorough review of experimental and theoretical results will show that tilted fiber Bragg gratings can be used for high resolution refractometry, surface plasmon resonance applications, and multiparameter physical sensing (strain, vibration, curvature, and temperature).

Tilted fiber Bragg grating sensors

Optical biosensors have exhibited worthwhile performance in detecting biological systems and promoting significant advances in clinical diagnostics, drug discovery, food process control, and environmental monitoring. Without complexity in their pretreatment and probable influence on the nature of target molecules, these biosensors have additional advantages such as high sensitivity, robustness, reliability, and potential to be integrated on a single chip. In this review, the state of the art optical biosensor technologies, including those based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR), optical waveguides, optical resonators, photonic crystals, and optical fibers, are presented. The principles for each type of biosensor are concisely introduced and particular emphasis has been placed on recent achievements. The strengths and weaknesses of each type of biosensor have been outlined as well. Concluding remarks regarding the perspectives of future developments are discussed.

Optical biosensors: an exhaustive and comprehensive review.

The tilted fiber Bragg grating (TFBG) is a new kind of fiber-optic sensor that possesses all the advantages of well-established Bragg grating technology in addition to being able to excite cladding modes resonantly. This device opens up a multitude of opportunities for single-point sensing in hard-to-reach spaces with very controllable cross-sensitivities, absolute and relative measurements of various parameters, and an extreme sensitivity to materials external to the fiber without requiring the fiber to be etched or tapered. Over the past five years, our research group has been developing multimodal fiber-optic sensors based on TFBG in various shapes and forms, always keeping the device itself simple to fabricate and compatible with low-cost manufacturing. This paper presents a brief review of the principle, fabrication, characterization, and implementation of TFBGs, followed by our progress in TFBG sensors for mechanical and biochemical applications, including one-dimensional TFBG vibroscopes, accelerometers and micro-displacement sensors; two-dimensional TFBG vector vibroscopes and vector rotation sensors; reflective TFBG refractometers with in-fiber and fiber-to-fiber configurations; polarimetric and plasmonic TFBG biochemical sensors for in-situ detection of cell, protein and glucose.

[INVITED] Tilted fiber grating mechanical and biochemical sensors ☆

A high sensitivity D-shaped hole double-cladding fiber temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is designed and investigated by a full-vector finite element method. Within the D-shaped hole double-cladding fiber, the hollow D-section is coated with gold film and then injected in a high thermo-optic coefficient liquid to realize the high temperature sensitivity for the fiber SPR temperature sensor. The numerical simulation results show that the peaking loss of the D-shaped hole double-cladding fiber SPR is hugely influenced by the distance between the D-shaped hole and fiber core and by the thickness of the gold film, but the temperature sensitivity is almost insensitive to the above parameters. When the thermo-optic coefficient is −2.8×10−4/°C, the thickness of the gold film is 47 nm, and the distance between the D-shaped hole and fiber core is 5 μm, the temperature sensitivity of the D-shaped hole fiber SPR sensor can reach to −3.635  nm/°C.

High sensitivity D -shaped hole fiber temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance with liquid filling

A dual-parameter fiber sensor based on few-mode fiber and fiber Bragg grating for strain and temperature sensing

An optical fiber sensor for simultaneous measurement of liquid level and temperature is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The sensor is formed by the integration of a no-core fiber (NCF) with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG).When the liquid level is changed, the interference fringe of the NCF would shift while the Bragg wavelength of the FBG remains the same. On the other hand, the interference fringe of the NCF and the Bragg wavelength of the FBG would shift simultaneously with the variation of temperature. Thus the liquid level sensor with dynamic temperature compensation can be easily achieved by using the temperature sensing property of FBG. For 10 pm wavelength resolution, the resolution of the sensor is 0.046 cm and 1.1 °C in liquid level and temperature, respectively. The fabrication of the proposed sensor is very simple and it is characterized by the dynamic temperature compensation, which makes it desirable in liquid level measurement.

Liquid level measurement based on a no-core fiber with temperature compensation using a fiber Bragg grating

A fiber optic sensor capable of measuring refractive index (RI), strain, and temperature simultaneously is proposed and demonstrated. The sensor is formed by the integration of a four-core fiber (FCF) with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG). When the FCF is kept straight, a pronounced interference pattern appears in the transmission spectrum. Compared with previously reported optical fiber modal interferometers, higher fringe visibility can be obtained in our scheme. The maximum fringe visibility of the interference resonance dips exceeds 21 dB. By monitoring the wavelength shifts of three dips, simultaneous measurement of RI, strain, and temperature can be achieved. For 10 pm wavelength resolution, the resolution of the sensor is 0.0004 RIU, 11.06 μe, and 0.17 °C in RI, strain, and temperature, respectively. The proposed sensor has the advantages of easy to construct, higher fringe visibility, and the capability to measure RI, strain, and temperature simultaneously, which are desirable features in RI measurement.

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index, strain, and temperature based on a four-core fiber combined with a fiber Bragg grating

A highly sensitive curvature sensor based on asymmetrical twin core fiber (TCF) and multimode fiber (MMF) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By applying the coupled-mode theory and equivalent refractive index model, we theoretically analyze the uncoupled feature of the TCF and the relationship between peak wavelength and the curvature. Two segments of MMF used as beam splitter and combiner are embedded on the two ends of the TCF, and the extinction ratio of the comb transmission spectrum is about 15 dB. The experimental result shows that the curvature sensitivity of the sensor can be achieved as high as 103.35 nm/m−1 ranging from 0.24 m−1 to 0.6 m−1, and the strain sensitivity is up to −4.01 pm/μe in the range from 0 μeto 1400 μe. The simultaneous detection of the curvature and strain can be realized. The temperature sensitivity is 0.431 nm/°C in the range from 40 °C to 70 °C. This fiber sensor exhibits the advantages of low cost, easy and repeated fabrication, and high sensitivity.

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Li Pei

Papers

High sensitivity D -shaped hole fiber temperature sensor based on surface plasmon resonance with liquid filling

A dual-parameter fiber sensor based on few-mode fiber and fiber Bragg grating for strain and temperature sensing

Liquid level measurement based on a no-core fiber with temperature compensation using a fiber Bragg grating

Simultaneous measurement of refractive index, strain, and temperature based on a four-core fiber combined with a fiber Bragg grating

Highly sensitive curvature sensor based on asymmetrical twin core fiber and multimode fiber