Gold coated long period gratings in single and multi layer configuration for sensing applications

Abstract

Long Period fiber Gratings (LPGs) fabricated by electrical discharge have found large interest as emerging devices in the field of optical communications and optical fiber sensors. Besides, the integration of UV LPGs with noble metal nano-layers, such as Au or Ag, seem to act as a promising sensing platform partly due to their potential applications for chemical and biological sensing. This work, for the first time to our knowledge, reports on the spectral characteristics of arc-induced LPGs coated with nanoscale gold coating in single and multi layer configurations. In particular, gold layers at nano-scale have been deposited on LPGs by adopting evaporation technique in a vacuum chamber with good uniformity, optically smooth interfaces and different thicknesses. Also, multi-layer configurations involving pre and post deposition of polymeric thin film have been investigated. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.