Optical fiber pH sensor based on lossy-mode resonances by means of thin polymeric coatings

Abstract This work describes the fabrication of an optical fiber sensor with spectral response to pH based on the deposition of a thin polymeric coating on an optical fiber core. If the thin polymeric coating has a high refractive index real part and a non-null imaginary part, this permits a coupling of light to the modes guided in the polymeric coating originating optical resonances. These resonances are named by some authors as lossy-mode resonances (LMR) or guided-mode resonances. Moreover, the location of the resonances in the optical spectrum varies as a function of the coating thickness and refractive index. Hence, the utilization of the well-known poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) and poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) pH sensitive polymeric coating that presents a variation of the thickness with the pH of the solution (known as swelling/deswelling behaviour) permits the fabrication of optical fiber pH sensors based on wavelength detection. The fabrication of ready-to-use devices requires considering several aspects such as the adequate polymeric coating thickness or the selection of the resonance to be monitored. As a result, LMR-based optical fiber pH sensors with accuracy of ±0.001 pH units and an average sensitivity of 0.027 pH units/nm within the range between pH 3 and pH 6 have been obtained after an adequate design.