Simultaneous Measurement of Refractive Index, Temperature, and Strain Using Etched-Core Fiber Bragg Grating Sensors ‘Sang-Mae Lee, Simarjeet S. Saini, and Myung-Yung Jeong, Abstract—This study demonstrates simultaneous measurement of three parameters viz, refractive index of surrounding medium, ‘temperature, and strain using etched-core fiber Bragg grating ‘sensors, Simultaneous measurement is achieved by exciting | ‘order modes in the sensor using an asymmetric nonadiabatie taper and measuring difference in their Bragg wavelength shifts ‘due to different parameters. In order to simultancou three parameters, three different order modes were excited in the sensor. The ability to measure multiple parameters is useful i bio-chemical measurements as it allows us to compensate for the ‘change in Bragg wavelength with respect to change in temperature ‘or strain. Thus, the sensors do not need to be stabilized. Index Terms—Biosensor, etched-core fiber Bragg grating (FBG), ‘evanescent field. I. INTRODUCTION IOSENSORS are mostly classified as optical and nonop- tical sensors such as mechanical and electrochemical Sensors. Optical sensors have attracted considerable attention as they offer various advantages over mechanical and electric transducers [1]. Amongst optical sensors, fiber Bragg gratings, (FBGs) provide distinct advantages as the sensing is encoded, directly into the wavelength, an absolute parameter. Moreover, the wavelength encoded nature of the output also facilitates, wavelength division multiplexing by assigning each sensor to «different slice of the available source spectrum [2]. Further- more, label-free detection of biochemical based on evanescent wave interactions have been investigated in recent years in biomedical diagnostics and environmental monitoring because ‘of small size, high sensitivity, and possibility of multiplexed measurements [3]. Accordingly, considerable attention has been, paid to FBGs as a label-free biosensor to detect bio/chemicals, through the shift in the reflected wavelength due to a change of refractive index arising from chemical interaction, A method, to increase the sensitivity of an FBG sensor was demonstrated. by etching the fiber till the core [41, [51 and further modified “Manuscript received March 17,2010; revised June 14,2010; acceped June 25, 2010, Date of pubiaton July 12, 2010; date of cute version September 10, 2010. Tis work was supported by the National Research Foundation Grant Funded by the Korean Goverment (MOEHRD) (NRF-2007-313-C00293), ‘SoM. Lac is withthe Engingoring Research Center for Net Shape and Die Manufacturing, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, South Korea. 5.5 Suni ss withthe Department of Electeal and Computer Engineering. University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G, Canad M.-Y. Jeong is with the Department of Cogio-Mechatonies Enginering (0W.CU. Program), Pusan Nation University, Pusan 609-735, South Kors. ‘Color versions of one or moe of the gure inthis ete are available online at hupstieexploe jee og Digital Object Idemiter 10.1109. 20102057416 by partial and localized etching of the cladding layer to achieve refractive index measurements with a resolution of 4.10° [6]. However, itis hard to distinguish whether the change of wave- Tength is due to a refractive index change of the surrounding ‘medium or due to change in the physical properties ofthe fiber like the core index and the grating period of the FBG induced by strain and temperature, which may be caused during the chemical interaction. This is especially true for fibers thinned {o thei cote, In order to distinguish the exact shift by refractive index change due to chemical interaction, one needs to correct, for the change of temperature or strain that may happen in the experiment. While bulk temperature may be easily measured, the local temperature around the core of the fiber could be different as chemical reaction happens there. In a previous work [7], we have demonstrated that parametric discrimination is possible by monitoring multiple modes of the etched FBG at the same time. The fiber was etched using hydrofluoric acid by simply dipping into it, Due to acid creep, a nonadiabatic taper was achieved but it was symmetrical. Thus, only the symmetric modes could be excited resulting in inter- rogation of first-order and one of the third-order modes. This, allowed us to distinguish accurately between two parameters In this paper, we show controlled etching of the fiber to achieve nonsymmetrical tapers which excite even the second-order ‘modes and then demonstrate that such etched gratings can be used to detect refractive index, temperature, and strain in a single measurement. TL. EXPERIMENT In order to measure three different parameters, at least three ‘measurements need to be made for which the rate of change of ‘wavelength due to the parameters is different. The sensitivity of the etched-core FBG sensor to the index of the surrounding ‘medium depends on the interaction of the evanescent field with the medium. Since higher order modes have larger magnitude of the evanescent field, they have a higher change in Bragg wave- Tength as compared to the fundamental mode. With a change in temperature, the refractive index of the core can change. Since the confinement factor of the modes is different, there will be a difference in the change of the wavelength for a different order of the modes. On the other hand, strain on the fiber mainly changes the period of the grating, thus different order modes will, see similar wavelength shifts. Since most of the biological and chemical reaction use media with index close to water, which is smaller than the cladding of an unetched fiber, the normal- ized frequency of the etched-core fiber is larger than 2.405 and the higher order modes can be supported. Thus, by measuring 1081-11359826.00 © 2010 IEEEOptical Fiber Hot Stage Fig. 1. Schematic of etching forthe ier. Fig. 2. Optical microscope photograph of an etched fiber \wavelength shifts for different orders of modes, parametric dis crimination can be achieved. A similar method for measuring only two parameters, temperature and refractive index, has been demonstrated in long-period gratings [8]. A graphical solution for calculating the wavelength changes for different parameters hhas been demonstrated in [6]. Further discussion can also be seen there. ‘The main challenge is to be able to excite the different or- ders of modes in a repeatable fashion. In order to be able to excite the nonsymmetrical modes, the transition from the fiber to the etched fiber needs to be nonsymmetrical, In order for the ssecond- and third-order mode to excite simultaneously, the con- dition for etching the tapered structure of the etched FBG was ‘optimized using the etch rate difference due to the flow of the acid. A commercially available FBG with an unetched Bragg reflectivity at 1562.5 nm and a bandwidth of 0.2 nm was used for this experiment, The acrylic coating on the fiber was partly removed and the fiber was placed in stainless-steel housing. The housing consisted of two horse-shoe-shaped structures held to- gether with guiding pins. By stretching one of the structures with respect to the other, controlled strain could be applied. The FBG. \was threaded through the structure and epoxied in place. In order to achieve nonuniform etching, thus creating a non- symmetrical taper, the housing was placed asymmetrically on the side in a beaker of buffered hydrofluoric acid (BHF). Fur- ther, a laminar flow was created in the acid by using a magnetic stirrer. This is shown in Fig. 1. Response of the FBG while etching was monitored to have in situ control. The optimized tapered structure was achieved at a temperature of 20 °C and stirring speed of 400 rpm for the BHF. Fig. 2 shows a sample of the etched fiber. The outline of the taper has been highlighted for ease of visualization. Itshould be noted here thatthe taper is achieved by the ereep of the acid at the surface and not by pulling the fiber up mechanically in the acid. This creep is changed Intensity (dBm/0.05 nm) & 0 as $0 soo” 15801540 15501560 1570 ‘Wavelength (om) Fig. 3. Reflected spectrum of the eched-owe FBG, 6 lst . z Bo + = z . Sat se ake asa Refractive Index Change Fig. 4, Wavelength hi of the modes with efiatve index ofthe surounding ‘medium, asymmetrically when the fiber is placed in the flow away from the center. In the region where the FBG is placed, the etch is, still nearly symmetrical due to bulk etching and the fiber can be etched into the core. The length of taper is approximately 50 jum and is unadiabatic in nature. The diameter of the core after etching was approximately 7 pm. This was chosen keeping fiber strength and ease of excitation of higher order modes in mind, Fig. 3 shows the reflection spectrum of a typical grating after the etch, Broadband light from an erbium-doped fiber amplifier (EDFA) was coupled into the sensor using a 3-4B coupler and the reflected light was measured in an optical spectrum analyzer ‘with a resolution of 0.05 nm, Reflections due to first, second, and third mode are clearly seen. The width of the reflection spec tum for the higher order modes increases because of the pres ence of different HE modes with slightly different propagation constants. In fact, withthe third-order modes, there are multiple reflections seen as the difference between these modes is larger. ‘Though the power of the second-order mode is smaller than that of the first- and third-order modes, the features are sufficiently resolved for sensing applications. Further, the presence of the symmetrical second-order modes demonstrates the asymmetry of the taper in the transition region, In order to measure the change in wavelength for a change in refractive index of the surrounding medium, the sensor was placed in Cargille liquids with known refractive indices. Fig. 4 shows the change of wavelength with respect to the change in refractive index. The sensitivity for all the modes increases as, the index of the surrounding medium is increased. However,2 z v = + tstorder 3°) andorder a . 1 - 3rd order sy, 5 __sidts 000 1000 iso 20000 Strain (microstrain) Fig 5, Wavelength shift ofthe modes with stain, ° = Fa Soni = 2 veeine zu : : _ ia 3 oe : Eo 7 q + 1st Mode e = 2nd Mode a2 ; + 3rd Mode a0 30 40 50 60 70 ‘Temperature (C) Fig. 6. Wavelength sit due to change in temperature Expected shit due to change in efiative index is aso shown, the change is proportional to the mode number as expected be- ‘cause of increased evanescent field in higher order modes. For refractive index of water, the sensitivity to change of first order, second order, and third order is 19.4, 52.1, and 92.0 nmiiu, re- spectively. This results in a ratio of 2.69 and 4.75 between the wavelength shifts of second-order and first-order mode and of third-order and first-order, respectively. In order to measure the effect of strain, one end ofthe holder \was fixed and the other moved with a translational stage. Fig. 5 shows the change in wavelength for the different modes as the fiber is stretched. Its observed from the figure that even with a large value of strain, the change in wavelength for the different modes is the same, The wavelength shift in this ease is mainly due to change of grating period due to strain. In another experiment, the sensor was immersed in water and the temperature was changed from 30 °C to 60 °C. As the lemperature increases, the index of the water decreases thereby shifting the reflected Brage wavelengths, As such due to change in refractive index, a decrease in the Bragg wavelength is ex- pected. Also the mechanical properties of fiber change. This is because of the expansion of the fiber holder resulting in strain. Further, due to the change in temperature, the refractive index of the core will change. This will create a slightly different change n Bragg wavelength for the different order modes. The wave- length shift is seen in Fig. 6. Itis observed that though the wave- length decreases for the higher order modes faster than that for the fundamental mode, the ratio between second and first ‘onder and between third and first order is smaller than 2.69 and 4.75, respectively, if the change only happened due to refrac- tive index change in water. Assuming a refractive index change of -1.0 10°4/°C [9}, the expected wavelength change due to change of refractive index of waters also shown in Fig. 6. What is interesting to note is thatthe residual change isnot the same forthe three different wavelengths. So besides strain, there isa role played by change of refractive index of the core, thereby ‘making the change different for different wavelengths. Using the above experiments and linear fits, a matrix ean be obtained between the change of the wavelength for different order modes and the three parameters It is noted that refractive index components of a matrix were obtained through a linear fit within a region of lower indices close to that of water. The matrix is shown below. Here the change in wavelength is in nanometers, the strain isin microstrains, and the temperature in degrees centigrade. By measuring the change in wavelengths forthe three modes, change in refractive index, temperature and strain can be measured simultaneously Aan Kin kur Ke] [An Adsna| =] han her hae | | AT Msc Kay kar Kae] | Ae 19.388 0.0130 0,009] [ An = [52.112 0.0159 0.0009} | AT.) 92.037 0.0320 0,009} | Ae IIL, ConcLuston, We have demonstrated simultaneous measurement of refrac= tive index, temperature, and strain by exciting multiple order ‘modes in an etched-core FBG sensor. 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