Study of the influence of temperature on the optical response of interferometric detector systems
Introduction
Integrated optical detectors present many advantages over their counterparts belonging to other technological families. By way of general examples, we can cite the lack of explosion risks when applied to detecting inflammable gasses, fast response times due to the low mechanical thickness of materials used, low power consumptions, and the ability to be incorporated easily into detector networks [2], [3]. The most common use of integrated optics in the sensing market is in gas detectors, where the interaction between the target gas and the material in which light is confined serves to alter the refractive index of the latter. Changes in refractive indices may be detected most accurately by employing interference based optical systems, capable of resolving changes in optical path lengths (product of the physical length of components and their refractive index) of the order of the wavelength of the probe light signal.
In this paper, we will address the problem of the detection of combustible gasses, namely hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which can be exothermically oxidized to water and carbon monoxide respectively by catalytic materials. Such materials, including metallic nanoparticles on metal oxide supports (for example Au/ZrO2 or Au/CeO2) [4], can be deposited onto the surface of integrated optics components such that the heat released by the oxidation is absorbed into the component and changes the refractive index of the constituent material. In this work, we will firstly present measurements carried out in order to determine the temperature and chromatic dispersion of polymer blend materials developed by the KLOE company in Montpellier, France. These measurements will then be used to simulate the optical output of two different integrated optics devices composed from the afore mentioned materials in response to a rise in temperature due to the presence of the target gas. The architectures studied will be a Bragg grating (BG) and a Multi mode interferometer (MMI). We will see that the Bragg grating architectures simulated are suited to higher temperature variations of the order of tens of degrees Celsius, and the MMI architectures are shown to be suited to temperature changes of the order of 0.1 °C.
Section snippets
Refractive index dispersion measurements
The polymer blend materials of which the simulated architectures are composed are hybrid organic–inorganic mixtures designed to have low losses in the visible to near-infrared spectral range, and hence a negligible extinction coefficient for the purposes of this study. The materials are fabricated by the KLOE company, and are commercialized for use in telecommunications systems [5]. Two different materials types are studied: the first being referred to as a buffer material, the second as a
Bragg grating (BG)
The Bragg grating structure considered, depicted in Fig. 1, is composed of a succession of high and low refractive index zones contained within an optical waveguide. These zones are composed of the guide and buffer materials, of indices ng (high) and nb (low) respectively.
When light is coupled into a guided mode of the waveguide, at each interface a part of the incident light is transmitted and the remainder reflected. If the physical length of the high and low index sections is correctly
Differential detector systems
A clear drawback of the gas sensor described previously, based upon the absorption of the heat Q released by the catalyzed oxidation of gasses on a nanostructured layer deposited onto such optical components, is that the output of the sensor will vary as a function of the ambient temperature. In order to overcome this, a differential measurement system employing two identical components may be used, as depicted in Fig. 10(a).We define the differential response, R, of such as system as follows:
Conclusion
In this paper, we have used chromatic and temperature dispersions of the refractive index of transparent polymer blend waveguide materials to simulate the optical output of two integrated optics components as a function of the device temperature. It has been demonstrated that a linear relationship links the output intensity and the temperature of Bragg grating structures over the full working temperature range for the polymer blend materials (10–60 °C). A linear relationship is also obtained for
Acknowledgement
The authors would like to thank the French ANR (Agence Nationale de Recherche) for financing this work through the PEPS (PEllet PhotoSensor) project.
Dr. Thomas Wood obtained a Masters degree in Physics from the University of Manchester (UK) in 2009, having studied abroad for one year at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble (France). He then completed a PhD at Aix-Marseille University (France) in 2013, for which the major research topics were the characterization of the chromatic and thermal dispersion of the refractive indices of materials deposited in thin films, and the study of gas sensing systems. Since finishing his PhD, he has
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Dr. Thomas Wood obtained a Masters degree in Physics from the University of Manchester (UK) in 2009, having studied abroad for one year at the Joseph Fourier University in Grenoble (France). He then completed a PhD at Aix-Marseille University (France) in 2013, for which the major research topics were the characterization of the chromatic and thermal dispersion of the refractive indices of materials deposited in thin films, and the study of gas sensing systems. Since finishing his PhD, he has been working as a postdoctoral researcher in the IM2NP laboratory, characterizing the optical properties of materials destined to be integrated into organic solar cells. He has presented his work at major international conferences and is the author of 6 accepted journal articles and conference proceedings.
Dr. Judikaël Le Rouzo, received his Ph.D. in Physics in 2007 from the Ecole Polytechnique, France. His researches are mainly on the Optoelectronic devices such as photodetector or photovoltaic solar cells. He is specialized in optics and photonics and performs work on the interaction between light and matter, especially in the cases of nanostructures. More than 15 journal papers and 20 conference papers about his research have been published in the last 5 years.
Prof François Flory. received a PhD in Optics in 1978 and a “Thése d’Etat” in 1987. He is now a Professor “classe exceptionnelle” at Ecole Centrale Marseille. He was deputy director of this institution for 6 years and co-founded the optical cluster POPsud. He performs his research at the Institute for Materials, Microelectronics and Nanosciences. His research interests are optical coatings and nanophotonics for different application fields such as solar cells, sensors and light detectors. He is editor and co-author of the book “Thin Films for Optical Systems” (Marcel Dekker, 1995), author of more than 200 publications, book chapters, patents and conferences.
Dr. Raphael Kribich obtained a M.Sc. in Electronics in 1998 and a Ph.D. in Photonics in 2002 from the university of Montpellier, France. He then worked as a research engineer for Kloé S.A., a spin-off of this university, before joining the National Center for Sensor Research as a post-doctoral fellow and technical manager at Dublin City University, Ireland. Since 2004 he works for the university of Montpellier as an associate professor and conducts research at the IES laboratory on integrated optics. Main topics are conception, fabrication and/or characterization of passive optical circuits such as optical sensors, interferometers, spectrometers and optical near field probes using laser lithography prototyping on organic-inorganic sol-gel processed materials, Si/SiO2 and chalcogenide glass.
Mr. Geoffrey Maulion was born in Paris, France in 1985. He obtained a Master in optics from the University of Rouen in 2011. Since, he has worked as a Phd student at the IES laboratory in Montpellier, on photonics components design, fabrication and experimental testing for gas sensing.
Dr. Philippe Signoret received an engineering degree in radioelectricity and electronics from the Institut National Polytechnique de Grenoble, Grenoble, France, in 1989 and a Ph.D. degree in optoelectronics from Montpellier University, Montpellier, France, in 1994. He is currently a Full Professor leading research at the IES, Institut d’Electronique du Sud, Montpellier, France, During the 90 s, he was engaged in research on the characterization by noise measurements of optotelectronics devices for optical-fiber transmission systems, especially the study of DBR tunable lasers and vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers. Since the mid-2000 s, he has been involved in the understanding of the radiation sensitivity of special optical fibers, in order to develop radiation hardened fibers, within the framework of a national partnership. He also manages PhD students studying at the IES lab in the post-graduate electronics doctoral school.
Dr. Paul Coudray obtained his PhD in opto-electronics in November 1993. As the author of more than 70 papers, of which a dozen are invited articles, he created the KLOE company in January 2001. This company develops and produces circuits and integrated optics systems for applications in the domains of sensing, medicine, and biotechnologies, as well as micro-technology direct laser-writing systems.
Dr. Thomas Mazingue is an associate professor at Savoie University. He defended his PhD entitled ‘Design and fabrication of a guided waves optical sensor for the detection of chemical species’ in September 2005 at Paul Cezanne (Aix-Marseille III) University. He currently carries out his research in the SYMME laboratory and his teaching at Polytech’ Savoie, Annecy, France.