Back-reflecting interferometeric sensor based on grating coupler on a planar waveguide

Abstract: We present a one-port sensor based on a single diffraction grating delineated over a planar optical waveguide. Distinctly to previously reported devices, the grating here is used not only as I/O coupler, but also provides a built-in reference beam which is basically unaffected by the sensing process as manifested in changes of the effective refractive index of the waveguide. The sensing process causes two effects simultaneously: a change in the angle of the out-coupled beam and a change in the phase accumulated by that beam. Both changes can be determined by their conjunction with the reference beam back-diffracted directly by the grating. These two effects are expected to have despair sensitivities, the angle changing effect being coarse and the interferometric phase-change effect being highly sensitive. Sensing simultaneously at two different scales will translate into a large sensing dynamic range.