5 TAKARA, H , KAWANISHI, s , MORIOKA, T.

, MORI, K , and Design: Planar waveguides were formed in BK7 glass substrates by
SARUWATARI, M : '100Gbitk optical waveform measurement with the K+-Na+ ion-exchange process. Substrates were cleaned and
0 . 6 ~ sresolution optical sampling using supercontinuum pulses', placed in a bath of pure KNO, at 375°C for 3Sh, forming a 3 p -
Electron. Lett., 1994, 30, pp. 1152-1153 deep waveguide. Next, thin f i s of SiO,, TiO,, Au and SiO, were
sequentially deposited by electron-beam evaporation. Lastly, the
endfacets of the waveguide were polished. The complete structure
is shown in Fig. 1.
superstrate
xperimental investigation of a surface
p l a s m ~ n - ~ a s eintegrated-optic
d humidity
sensor
M.N. Weiss, R. Srivastava a n d H. Groger
input output

Indexing terms: Humidity sensors, Integrated optics, Optical in BK7 substrate

sensors
A humidity sensor has been fabricated by coating a surface
plasmon waveguide with a t h layer of Nafion fluoropolymer.
The refractive index of Nafion varies as a function of humidity,
causing a shift in the plasmon resonance wavelength. The present
device is able to measure relative humidity over a range of at least
20% to 50%, while exhibiting good linearity. Furthermore,
humidity-induced index changes to Nafion occur rapidly and
appear to be fully reversible.
Introduction: Humidity sensors have been studied in a number of
forms for many years. Electronic humidity sensors are well estab-
lished, but suffer from electromagnetic interference (EMI). Optical
sensors offer immunity to EM1 and have been explored using a
variety of detection schemes, including humidity-induced changes
in fluorescence [l], absorption [2]and refractive index [3, 41. In the
first two cases, the linearity of the device response tends to be
poor, while in the latter case, the index change is rather small, in
the order of 1 x l t 3 .Although index changes on this scale can be
measured interferometrically, an alternative, and perhaps more
robust, approach is to use a surface plasmon (SP) waveguide. In
this Letter we examine the performance of such a device, created
by coating an SP waveguide with a thin layer of a polymer whose
refractive index is moisture-sensitive.
An integrated optic (IO) SP waveguide consists of a dielectric
waveguide overlaid with a thin layer of metal and functions as a
generic refractive index sensor [5 - 71. Using the coupled mode
formalism, resonance occurs when the propagation constant of an
uncoupled TM-polarised waveguide mode matches that of an SP
mode in the metal f h and the two waves couple to form a lossy
normal mode. When this phase condition is not satisfied, propaga-
tion loss is considerably lower. SP excitation in these devices is
thus strongly polarisation- and wavelength-dependent. Changes in
the refractive index of the superstrate region alter the resonance
wavelength by producing unequal changes in the propagation con-
stants of the uncoupled waveguide and SP modes. TE-polarised
waveguide modes do not interact with the surface plasmons and
experience a relatively small, wavelength-independent loss due to
the presence of the metal layer.
The response of the 10 SP waveguide can be characterised in
terms of the polarisation extinction ratio PER), defmed at a par-
ticular wavelength as [5]
where are the propagation losses Of the TE and TM modes
in dBicm. The losses are related to the normal mode propagation
constants as
AT",TE = -1Olog{eXp(-2~,T",TEs)}/Z (2)
where k, = (27dh,) NE,h, is the vacuum wavelength, z is the device
length and N, is the imaginary part of the normal mode index. For
singlemodewaveguides, the PER varies linearly with device length.
By exciting SP waveguides with circularly polarised light, the TE
signal can be used as an internal reference for signal normalisation
since its loss is relatively independent of the excitation wavelength.
A transfer matrix method is used in conjunction with a
damped-Newton-Raphson algorithm to iteratively compute the
complex propagation constants and field distributions for the nor-
mal modes of the SP waveguide. Eqns. 1 and 2 are used to calcu-
late PER values.
842 ELECTRONICS LETTERS
1402111
Fig. 1 Surface plasmon waveguide structure
In this device, the lower SiO, layer serves as a buffer to control
the magnitude of the plasmon-induced losses. The thicknesses of
the TiOz and upper SiOz layers control the resonance wavelength
of the device. Additionally, since the fragile gold layer is not in
direct contact with the surrounding environment, this configura-
tion offers a degree of ruggedness seldom found in SP sensors.
Further details of the device are reported elsewhere [7].
Results and discussion: The output of a monochromator
(Digkrom 240) was fed through a chopper (Rolfin-Sinar) into a
multimode optical fibre. The fibre was then butt-coupled directly
to the SP waveguide. The output signal was passed through a
Glan-Thompson prism polariser to resolve the individual polarisa-
tion components and ultimately detected with a silicon photodi-
ode. A lock-in amplifier was used to improve the signalhoise
ratio.
1.30 1.34 1-38 1 42
wperstrate refractive index
Fig. 2 Theoretically predicted and experimentally measured polarisation
extinction ratio against superstrate refractive index f o r excitation wave-
l e n d s o f 658 and 708nm
Theoretlcal curves have been scaled to be a factor of 10 smaller for
comnarlson DUrDoSes
0 638nm. meaiured. n 708nm. measured
658 nm, predicled (+ 10)
~ _ _ 708nm,
_ predicted (+ 10)
To calibrate the SP waveguide, the polarisation extinction ratio
was measured at 658nm and 708nm as a function of superstrate
refractive index, as shown in Fig. 2, using Cargille index oils. For
each excitation wavelength, a unique value of superstrate refrac-
tive index was found which maximised the magnitude of the PER.
A sensitivity, or minimum detectable change in refractive index, of
-5 x 1 t 5had been predicted for this device, at a signalhoke ratio
of -13dB [7].However, experimentally measured PER values were
found to be roughly an order of magnitude less than those pre-
dicted by OUI model, most likely due to scattering caused by
25th April 1996 Vol. 32 No. 9

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 imperfections in the end-facet polish and grain boundary-related
roughness in the metal layer. Because of this, we are only able to
resolve index variations of 5 x 1v4 with the current device. In
addition, the measured PER values peak at lower superstrate indi-
ces than predicted, which indicates that either one or both of the
tuning layers may be slightly thicker than anticipated or that the
refractive index of the gold layer differs somewhat from the model
data. From Fig. 2, it is evident that the actual sensitivity of this
device to refractive index variations depends on both the excita-
tion wavelength and the superstrate index. To uniquely determine
the actual refractive index of the superstrate media, measurements
of the PER at two wavelengths are needed.
E -4 .o
.
m
x
._
5 -5.0
C 1994, 33, (6), pp. 1090-1094
.-
.g -7. 0
I
-0
Q
0 2935
20 25 30 35 40 45 50
relative humidity ,% Lo213)
Fig. 3 Humidit.y response of surface plasmon waveguide when coated
with thin layer of Nafion fluoropolyrner
0 658nm excitation wavelength
0708nm excitation wavelength
To use the SP waveguide as a humidity sensor, it is necessary to
coat the device with a transducing layer whose refractive index is
humidity-dependent. For this purpose we have used Nafion fluor-
opolymer, which swells in the presence of moisture [8]. A few
drops of Nafion fluoropolymer (Aldrich, 1% polymer solution in
alcohol) were deposited onto the surface of the SP waveguide. The
solution dried to form a film on the order of 5 p thick, covering
the entire surface of the device. Variations in the thickness of the
Nafion layer do not significantly affect device performance, since
the film thickness is always greater than the penetration depth of
the evanescent tail of the plasmon into the polymer [7]. The
humidity-induced variation in the PER of the Nafion-coated SP
waveguide is shown in Fig. 3 over a range of 20% to 50% relative
humidity. Over this range, the sensor exhibits a reasonably linear
response, changing by 0.030dB/%RHcm for 658nm excitation and
-0.073dB/%RHcm for 708nm excitation. Humidity-dependent
changes in the index of Nafion occur very quickly, in the order of
tens of seconds, and appear to be fully reversible. No attempt was
made to control the temperature, which varied from 22°C to 26°C
over the course of these measurements. Comparing Fig. 2 and Fig.
3, we find that the refractive index of Nafion changes from
1.346oirO.0005 at 20% relative humidity to 1.358M.002 at 50% rel-
ative humidity. This is an order of magnitude larger than humid-
ity-induced refractive index changes in other polymeric materials,
such as polyimide [4].
Summary: Nafion fluoropolymer has been used as a transducing
layer on a surface plasmon waveguide to allow measurement of
atmospheric humidity. The sensor responds rapidly and reversibly
to changes in humidity and exhibits a relatively linear change in
polarisation extinction ratio for relative humidities between 20%
and 500/. Experimentally measured data agree reasonably well
with our theoretical model. Through improvements in the fabrica-
tion process, namely in the characterisation of the constituent thin
films, it should be possible to optimise the sensitivity of the device
at an operational wavelength where excitation by commercially
available red laser diodes is possible.
ELECTRONICS LETTERS 25th April 1996 Vol. 32
Authorized licensed use limited to: UNIVERSIDADE DO PORTO. Downloaded on June 15,2010 at 14:07:29 UTC from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.
Acknowledgments: This work was supported in part 6y the
National Science Foundation under grant DMI-9361889 awarded
to the American Research Corporation of Virginia. The govern-
ment has certain rights in these data. Support was also received
from the Microfabritech program at the University of Florida.
0 IEE 1996 17 Febvuuvy 1996
Electronics L e t t m Online No: I9960520
M.N. Weiss and R. Srivastava (Department of Electrical and Computer
Engineering, Lursen Hull, University of Florida, PO Box 116200,
Gainesville, FL 32611-6200, USA)
H. Groger (American Research Corporation of Virginia, 1509 4th
Street, PO Box 3406, Radford, VA 24143-3406, USA)
References
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2
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~~
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SNR improvement in silica-based waveguide
Rayleigh backscattering measurement
using a complex optical low coherence
reflectometer
K. Takada and H. Yamada
Indexing terms: ReJectorneters, Optical waveguides
The authors report a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement in
the Rayleigh backscattering measurement of a silica-based
waveguide over 20~x1,achieved by constructing a complex optical
low coherence reflectometer with an auxiliary interferometer. The
best SNR achieved is 38, which corresponds to signal fluctuations
of H.ldB, and the spatial resolution is 1.3cm. The measured
Rayleigh backscattering distribution clearly revealed the
waveguide loss.
Introduction: Coherent fading or speckle-like noise appears when
the Rayleigh backscattering from silica-based waveguides is meas-
ured with an optical low coherence reflectometer (OLCR). The
noise is reduced by averaging the signals that are obtained using
narrow band lights with different central wavelengths emitted
from a tunable narrow band source [I]. Although this method can
rapidly complete one averaging process at each waveguide point,
the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) achieved is at most 4,owing to
the finite spectral width of the source light.
The complex OLCR [2] can also perform signal averaging. This
uses the whole interference signal for a test waveguide. Signal
processing enables us to generate signals obtained for narrow
No. 9 843