Christophe Caucheteur

Fiber Bragg grating sensors toward structural health monitoring in composite materials: challenges and solutions.

Nowadays, smart composite materials embed miniaturized sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM) in order to mitigate the risk of failure due to an overload or to unwanted inhomogeneity resulting from the fabrication process. Optical fiber sensors, and more particularly fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors, outperform traditional sensor technologies, as they are lightweight, small in size and offer convenient multiplexing capabilities with remote operation. They have thus been extensively associated to composite materials to study their behavior for further SHM purposes. This paper reviews the main challenges arising from the use of FBGs in composite materials. The focus will be made on issues related to temperature-strain discrimination, demodulation of the amplitude spectrum during and after the curing process as well as connection between the embedded optical fibers and the surroundings. The main strategies developed in each of these three topics will be summarized and compared, demonstrating the large progress that has been made in this field in the past few years.

High resolution interrogation of tilted fiber grating SPR sensors from polarization properties measurement.

The generation of surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) in gold-coated weakly tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs) strongly depends on the state of polarization of the core guided light. Recently, it was demonstrated that rotating the linear state of polarization of the guided light by 90° with respect to the grating tilt allows to turn the SPR on and off. In this work, we measure the Jones matrix associated to the TFBG transmission properties in order to be able to analyze different polarization-related parameters (i.e. dependency on wavelength of polarization dependent loss and first Stokes parameter). As they contain the information about the SPR, they can be used as a robust and accurate demodulation technique for refractometry purposes. Unlike other methods reported so far, a tight control of the input state of polarization is not required. The maximum error on refractive index measurement has been determined to be ~1 10(-5) refractive index unit (RIU), 5 times better than intensity-based measurements on the same sensors.

Demodulation technique for weakly tilted fiber Bragg grating refractometer

In this letter, a demodulation technique is presented in order to measure the surrounding refractive index in the range 1-1.45 by means of a weakly tilted fiber Bragg grating. This technique is based on the global monitoring of the cladding modes in the transmitted spectrum and on the computation of two statistical parameters. We report a resolution of 210/sup -4/ in terms of the refractive index as well as a temperature-insensitive behavior.

Highly sensitive detection of molecular interactions with plasmonic optical fiber grating sensors.

Surface Plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber biosensors constitute a miniaturized counterpart to the bulky prism configuration and offer remote operation in very small volumes of analyte. They are a cost-effective and relatively straightforward technique to yield in situ (or even possibly in vivo) molecular detection. The biosensor configuration reported in this work uses nanometric-scale gold-coated tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBGs) interrogated by light polarized radially to the optical fiber outer surface, so as to maximize the optical coupling with the SPR. These gratings were recently associated to aptamers to assess their label-free biorecognition capability in buffer and serum solutions. In this work, using the well-acknowledged biotin-streptavidin pair as a benchmark, we go forward in the demonstration of their unique sensitivity. In addition to the monitoring of the self-assembled monolayer (SAM) in real time, we report an unprecedented limit of detection (LOD) as low as 2 pM. Finally, an immunosensing experiment is realized with human transferrin (dissociation constant Kd~10(-8) M(-1)). It allows to assess both the reversibility and the robustness of the SPR-TFBG biosensors and to confirm their high sensitivity.

Hybrid fiber gratings coated with a catalytic sensitive layer for hydrogen sensing in air

Using hydrogen as fuel presents a potential risk of explosion and requires low cost and efficient leak sensors. We present here a hybrid sensor configuration consisting of a long period fiber grating (LPFG) and a superimposed uniform fiber Bragg grating (FBG). Both gratings are covered with a sensitive layer made of WO(3) doped with Pt on which H(2) undergoes an exothermic reaction. The released heat increases the temperature around the gratings. In this configuration, the LPFG favors the exothermic reaction thanks to a light coupling to the sensitive layer while the FBG reflects the temperature change linked to the hydrogen concentration. Our sensor is very fast and suitable to detect low hydrogen concentrations in air whatever the relative humidity level and for temperatures down to -50 degrees C, which is without equivalent for other hydrogen optical sensors reported so far.

Catalytic Fiber Bragg Grating Sensor for Hydrogen Leak Detection in Air

The explosion risk linked to the use of hydrogen as fuel requires low-cost and efficient sensors. We present here a multipoint in-fiber sensor capable of hydrogen leak detection in air as low as 1% concentration with a response time smaller than a few seconds. Our solution makes use of fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) covered by a catalytic sensitive layer made of a ceramic doped with noble metal which, in turn, induces a temperature elevation around the FBGs in the presence of hydrogen in air.

Transverse Strain Measurements Using the Birefringence Effect in Fiber Bragg Gratings

Birefringence in fiber Bragg gratings (FBGs) leads to polarization-dependent properties such as polarization-dependent loss (PDL). Although this property is not desired for telecommunications applications, we demonstrate that the PDL generated by uniform FBGs written into standard single-mode fiber can be advantageously used for transverse strain measurements, which is not directly possible through amplitude spectral measurements.

A thin metal sheath lifts the EH to HE degeneracy in the cladding mode refractometric sensitivity of optical fiber sensors

The effective indices of the cladding modes of optical fibers depend on the refractive index of the medium surrounding the fiber. We show experimentally and theoretically that while cladding modes with similar effective indices normally have similar refractometric sensitivities, the addition of a 50 nm thick gold sheath enhances the sensitivity of some EH modes by more than one order of magnitude while nearly completely suppressing the sensitivity of neighbouring HE modes (by three orders of magnitude, down to insignificant levels). A differential sensitivity of ∼1000 nm/(refractive index unit) is experimentally reported between adjacent EH and HE grating resonances.

Autocorrelation demodulation technique for fiber Bragg grating sensor

In this letter, we describe a very accurate and simple demodulation technique for fiber Bragg grating sensors. The technique is suitable for both single and twin Bragg gratings. A twin grating is composed of two identical gratings located at different positions in the same single-mode fiber. Our demodulation technique evaluates the wavelength position of the reflection spectrum with respect to the spectrum of an undisturbed sensor. To calculate the spectrum shift, it computes the autocorrelation product between the two reflection spectra. The demodulation method, which is very fast, has been tested experimentally with temperature sensors. It gives absolute measurements and provides high accuracy compared to a conventional temperature probe.

High resolution grating-assisted surface plasmon resonance fiber optic aptasensor.

A surface plasmon resonance biochemical sensor based on a tilted fiber Bragg grating imprinted in a single mode fiber core is demonstrated. A 30-50 nm thick gold coating on the cladding of the fiber provides the support for surface plasmon waves whose interaction with attached biomolecules is monitored at near infrared wavelengths near 1,550 nm. The transmission spectrum of the sensor provides a fine comb of narrowband resonances that overlap with the broader absorption of the surface plasmon and thus provide a unique tool to measure small shifts of the plasmon with high accuracy. The attachment on the gold surfaces of aptamers with specific affinities for proteins provides the required target-analyte system and is shown to be functional in the framework of our sensing device. The implementation of the sensor either as a stand-alone device or as part of a multi-sensor platform is also described.