Cost-Effective Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Liquid Refractive Index Sensor Based on Conventional Polymer Strip Waveguide

Xiao Xia Ma; Kai Xin Chen; Jie Yun Wu

doi:10.1109/JPHOT.2020.3041731

IEEE Photonics Journal (Jan 2021)

Cost-Effective Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Liquid Refractive Index Sensor Based on Conventional Polymer Strip Waveguide

Xiao Xia Ma,
Kai Xin Chen,
Jie Yun Wu

Affiliations

Xiao Xia Ma: School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Kai Xin Chen: ORCiD; School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China
Jie Yun Wu: School of Optoelectronic Science and Engineering, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China, Chengdu, China

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/JPHOT.2020.3041731
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 13, no. 1
pp. 1 – 9

Abstract

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We propose and demonstrate a cost-effective liquid refractive index (RI) sensor in polymer materials by employing a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) formed with the conventional strip waveguide. The proposed sensor can attain high sensitivity by choosing a suitable reference arm length to reduce optical path difference (OPD) between the two arms of the employed MZI. Our fabricated devices, which have the same sensing arm length of 7900 μm but different reference arm lengths of 7900.0, 7942.5, 7950.9, 7962.2, and 7969.5 μm, respectively, exhibit the maximum RI sensitivities of 33662.8 nm/RIU, and almost the same detection range (DR) of 0.0041 ± 0.0002 RIU.

Published in IEEE Photonics Journal

ISSN: 1943-0655 (Online)
Publisher: IEEE
Country of publisher: United States
LCC subjects: Technology: Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General): Applied optics. Photonics; Science: Physics: Optics. Light
Website: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/RecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4563994

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