In this paper, we will discuss the development of 3D printing strategies which enable rapid 3D fabrication of polymer photonic devices and sensors with applications to system health monitoring (SHM). Two-photon polymerization (2PP) 3D printers with 100 nm spatial resolution are commercially available and have enabled the design and fabrication of integrated nano-to microscale polymer photonic devices. Such 3D printing approaches allow us to design truly 3D photonic devices, and this opens the door to fabrication of complex shaped devices that are often produced by methods such as inverse design. Specifically, we report the development of optically active resins that are compatible with two-photon polymerization. We will discuss multiscale 3D printing of photonic devices and sensors with both passive and optically active resins that exhibit both up and down conversion emission when pumped at 980 nm.
Relative humidity (RH) is an important factor in the field of structural health monitoring, especially during the early stage of corrosion. Many methods have been proposed for humidity sensing, and one of the attractive sensors is fiber-optic long-period grating (LPG) sensors. Unfortunately, the current sensing sensitivity of this kind of sensors is limited. A thin fiber-optic LPG sensor with a self-assembled thin film of PAH + / PAA − is proposed and demonstrated for humidity measurements. The LPG sensor is inscribed in a single-mode fiber using a CO2 laser, and the cladding size is reduced to about 27 μm. It shows that an LPG sensor with a reduced cladding size has an enhanced refractive index sensing characteristic, compared to those with normal cladding size due to the enhancement of the evanescent field. In a next step, selectivity is added to the LPG sensor coated with a film of PAH + / PAA − for functionalization to be sensitive to humidity. The resonance spectral responses of LPGs are experimentally investigated with respect to its sensitivity to a change in humidity that modifies the index of the nanolayer and the cladding, leading to a resonant wavelength shift. The experimental results show that the coated thin LPG has a highly sensitive resonance wavelength shift of −220.75 pm / % RH for an RH variation from 25% to 80%, of which the sensitivity is enhanced thrice compared to those with a normal cladding size. The proposed sensing setup opens LPG structures for a variety of sensing and detection applications.
A novel special waveguide sensor, which is very sensitive to magnetic field, is proposed. This novel special wave guide is combined by two kinds material, YIG polymer and Bi:YIG polymer. The two beam lights counter-propagating in this kind of waveguide can generate large nonreciprocal phase shift. We designed the sensor structure, simulated the propagated characteristic of the structure. Based on the simulations, we concluded that waveguide with the core divided by two half circles can improve the sensitive to the magnetic field which is parallel to the interface of the two semicircles. We design a Sagnac interference demonstration with the light wavelength of 1550 nm, two difference-resonant loops. This sensor with 0.51pTesla-level sensitivity can be used in ultra-low magnetic field detection.
Photonic Floquet topological insulators (PFTI) allow scatter-free propagation of light along its edges. The PFTI of interest consists of helical waveguides arranged in a honeycomb lattice. When irradiated with an input beam on the edge of the PFTI, light propagates from one end of the waveguide-system to the other along the edges. The intensity and the final position of light is theoretically found to be dependent on the difference in the refractive indices of the core and cladding of the waveguides. For a system of helical-waveguides filled with a solvent, the effective refractive index of the system varies with the concentration of the analyte in the solvent and this can be measured by monitoring the position and intensity of the output-light. This paper discusses the design, principle, simulation and fabrication of such a PFTI based biosensor.
With the development of micro/nano-scale fabrication technologies, smart active/passive photonic devices have been fabricated by using silicon/polymer materials, which show great potential applications in photonics and optoelectronics. The current fabrication techniques such as electron-beam lithography give a high resolution, but they are expensive and time-consuming. Here, we present some polymer-based photonic devices fabricated by 3D femtosecond laser writing through two-photon polymerization. The resolution can reach up to ~100 nm, which is less than 1/10 wavelength within the C-band. Hence, the fabricated photonic devices can be used for micro lasing and sensing application. In this research, we show the spectral characteristics of several photonic devices such as phase-shifted Bragg grating waveguides. Due to the properties of polymer materials, the devices have a higher sensitivity on acoustic waves that can modify the geometry of the waveguide and thus induce a change in the effective index of the mode, which can be utilized for designing ultrasonic sensors. Although the fabricated quality is lower than that of photonic devices fabricated by the electron-beam lithography, the results show our fabricated devices can be useful for inexpensive sensors for ultrasound detection, demonstrating the usability of the femtosecond laser writing technique for photonic applications.
Rare earth-doped fiber lasers are interesting in the field of optical fiber lasing and sensing. One of the interesting topics is the tunable/switched multi-wavelength lasers. However, due to the homogeneous broadening gain, it is difficult to generate multiple wavelengths in the fiber lasers based on erbium-doped fibers. Here, we propose a tunable multiwavelength erbium-doped fiber ring laser based on an optical fiber tip Fabry-Perot (FP) interferometer, which acts a wavelength filter and a reflector of the fiber ring laser. With the purpose to propose a method for switch multiwavelength spectra, the strain and thermal variations around the modal interferometers are investigated. The spectra are symmetric with a maximal power difference about 25 dB between the lasing modes and the average of the side mode suppression ratio, which is tuned into the C-band with a resolution of 0.02 nm. This laser offers low wavelength drift, good signal to noise ratio and high-power stability, and can therefore be used for sensing applications.
Damage in civil, aerospace, and mechanical structures caused by crack growth and impact loading generate transient ultrasonic waves whose frequency and amplitude can reveal the underlying structural health condition. Hence, it is necessary to find a useful tool based on ultrasonic detection for structural health monitoring. Recently, smart sensors based on gratings such as fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) have been shown to be suitable to detect such acoustic waves in structural health monitoring applications. However, the fiber-based gratings as the ultrasonic sensor has limited sensitivity to high frequency ultrasound detection due to a specific grating length and a finite spectrum width. To eliminate this limitation, one improvement has been made by using phase shift FBGs due to their special filtering characteristics. The phase shift FBGs can have a narrower spectral width, which will significantly improve the detection sensitivity. Another big improvement, for example Bragg grating waveguide (BGW) sensor, is to optimize the grating structure using different materials. In this work, we describe a 3D printed-polymer BGW sensor for ultrasound detection fabricated through a two-photon polymerization process. The design and fabrication have been optimized for high detection sensitivity. The results demonstrate the potential application of BGW devices for high-sensitivity ultrasound detection.
High-frequency ultrasonic sensors are an important sensing technology in structural health monitoring applications. Compared with the traditional PZT transducer as ultrasonic sensors, novel ultrasonic sensors based on optical methods such as micro-ring resonators have gained increased attention. These micro-rings can be as small as a few microns in diameter, which improves their sensitivity to high-frequency ultrasound. In principle, acoustic waves irradiating the micro-ring induce strain, changing the dimensions and refractive index of the waveguides via the elasto-optic effect. This leads to a change of the guided whispering gallery modes (WGMs), which are extremely sensitive to change in the ring radius induced by the ultrasound strain field. Based on our prior research, here we present an integrated high-frequency ultrasonic sensor array based on optical micro-ring resonator array fabricated by direct laser writing. The fabrication has been optimized to provide high optical quality factor to ensure high detection sensitivity. The experiments demonstrate the potential of the polymer micro-ring resonator working as a high-performance ultrasonic sensor. Applications of the integrated ultrasonic sensor array for acoustic-emission ultrasound detection are shown.
In this paper, we demonstrate the fabrication of a chemical sensor for 2,4-dinitrotoluene (DNT), based on an opticalfiber- microsphere coated with upconversion nanocrystals functionalized with layers of polyelectrolytes - poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH). The design consists of a microsphere, which supports whispering-gallery-modes (WGM), coupled to an optical fiber. The NaYF4-Yb3+,Er3+ nanocrystals have a bright fluorescence around 550 nm and 650 nm when irradiated with 980 nm, which is enhanced by the WGM. When functionalized with PAA/PAH layers, these nanocrystals can be coated on the microsphere with control over layer thickness. The presence of DNT on the surface of the microsphere quenches the fluorescence as the absorption spectrum of DNT has peaks in 500 - 600 nm. The effect of concentration of the analyte on the magnitude of quenching has been studied. The paper discusses the design, fabrication and characterization of the chemical sensor.
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