Resumen
The deposition of an indium oxide (In2O3) thin film on conventional planar waveguides (a coverslip and a glass slide) allows generating lossy mode resonances (LMR) by lateral incidence of light on the waveguide and by registering the optical spectrum in a spectrometer. This novel sensing system becomes an alternative to optical fibre, the substrate where LMR-based sensors have been developed so f ...
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The deposition of an indium oxide (In2O3) thin film on conventional planar waveguides (a coverslip and a glass slide) allows generating lossy mode resonances (LMR) by lateral incidence of light on the waveguide and by registering the optical spectrum in a spectrometer. This novel sensing system becomes an alternative to optical fibre, the substrate where LMR-based sensors have been developed so far, since it is easier to handle and more robust. An additional advantage is that cost effective waveguides, such as slides or coverslips, can be used in a platform that resembles surface plasmon resonance-based sensors in the Kretschmann configuration but without the need for a coupling prism and with the advantage of being able to generate TE and TM LMR resonances with metallic oxide or polymer thin films. The results are corroborated with simulations, which provide in-depth understanding of the phenomena involved in the sensing system. As a proof-of-concept for the optical platform, two refractometers were developed, one with low sensitivity and for a wide range of refractive indices, and the other with higher sensitivity but for a narrower refractive index range. The sensors presented here open up the path for the development of LMR-based chemical sensors, environmental sensors, biosensors, or even the generation of other optical phenomena with the deposition of multilayer structures, gratings or nanostructures, which is much easier in a planar waveguide than in an optical fibre. [--]
Materias
Planar waveguides,
Lossy mode resonances sensors
Publicado en
Scientific Reports, (2019), 9, 8882
Departamento
Universidad Pública de Navarra. Departamento de Ingeniería Eléctrica, Electrónica y de Comunicación /
Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Ingeniaritza Elektrikoa, Elektronikoa eta Telekomunikazio Ingeniaritza Saila /
Universidad Pública de Navarra/Nafarroako Unibertsitate Publikoa. Institute of Smart Cities - ISC
Entidades Financiadoras
The authors would like to acknowledge the partial support to the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness TEC2016-78047-R and TEC2016-79367-C2-2-R research funds, the pre-doctoral research grant and the Government of Navarre 2018/PC021-022 OPTISENS research funds.