Metallic Grating on a D-Shaped Fiber for Refractive Index Sensing

Abstract

Metallic grating (MG) with high accuracy is fabricated on the side surface of a D-shaped fiber by using focused ion beam (FIB) machining. The D-shaped fiber is obtained through polishing the cladding of a single-mode fiber away from one side. Then, a thin-film layer of gold is deposited on the flat side surface. A 38- μm-long grating with the pitch of 485 nm is further milled on the gold film. The guiding mode and the surface plasmon polariton mode are thus coupled in the MG through the evanescent field for sensing applications. The refractive indexes of pure water and isopropanol are measured. A sensitivity of 917 nm/RIU is obtained.

Keywords

• Metallic grating (MG)
• D-shaped fiber
• sensor