Biosensing by Polymer-Coated Etched Long-Period Fiber Gratings Working near Mode Transition and Turn-around Point.

A methodology to enhance the sensitivity of long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) based on the combination of three different enhancement approaches is presented; the methods here adopted are the working near mode transition (MT) of a cladding mode (CM), working near the turn-around point of a CM and the enhancement of the evanescent field of CMs by reducing the cladding diameter or by increasing the order number of CMs. In order to combine these enhancement methodologies, an electrostatic self-assembly (ESA) process was used to deposit a polymeric overlay, with a chosen thickness, onto the etched fiber. The add-layer sensitivity of the sensor was theoretically calculated, and the demonstration of the real applicability of the developed LPFG as a biosensor was performed by means of an IgG/anti-IgG immunoassay in human serum in a thermostated microfluidic system. The limits of detection (LODs) calculated by following different procedures (three times the standard deviation of the blank and the mean value of the residuals) were 6.9 × 10-8 µg/mL and 4.5 × 10-6 µg/mL, respectively. The calculated LODs demonstrate the effectiveness of the applied methodology for sensitivity enhancement.

Sensitivity Analysis of Sidelobes of the Lowest Order Cladding Mode of Long Period Fiber Gratings at Turn Around Point.

A new methodology to enhance the sensitivity of a long period fiber grating sensor (LPFG) at the Turn Around Point (TAP) is here presented. The LPFG sensor has been fabricated by etching the fiber up to 20.4 µm, until the sidelobes of dispersed LP0,2 cladding mode appeared near TAP in aqueous medium. The dual peak sensitivity of the sidelobes was found to be 16,044 nm/SRIU (surrounding refractive index units) in the RI range from 1.333 to 1.3335.

Long-period fiber grating: a specific design for biosensing applications.

In this paper, a detailed investigation on the modeling of long-period fiber grating (LPFG) sensors is discussed with the aim of providing a more realistic solution for their use in biosensing. Add-layer sensitivity, i.e., sensitivity of the sensor to an additional layer adhered onto the fiber surface, is quantified and a clear and complete analysis about the influence of the average thickness of the deposited biological sensing layers, as well as the change in refractive index of these layers, on the resonant wavelength of the cladding modes of an LPFG is provided. Add-layer sensitivity of LPFG sensors close to mode transition (MT) and also at turn-around point (TAP) are taken into account. Adsorbed layer thicknesses, as estimated from measured wavelength shifts of the LPFG, are found to have a good match with the values obtained through other measurement techniques.

Application of strongly overcoupled resonant modes of long-period fiber gratings to measure the adulteration of olive oil.

We have shown that strongly overcoupled resonant modes of long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) can be used to assess the adulteration of olive oil. In this background, we investigate the response characteristics of strongly overcoupled resonant modes of different orders to a surrounding medium, the refractive index (RI) of which is greater than that of the fiber cladding, and in the range where a precise refractive index measurement is immensely useful for inspecting the quality of olive oils and other edible oils. A theoretical simulation that would help in designing a sensor with suitable sensitivity and range of measurement has been presented in detail and also validated with experimental results. It was interesting to observe that in a high RI surrounding, a lower order overcoupled resonant mode is much more sensitive as compared to a higher-order one having a similar coupling coefficient. A quantitative analysis demonstrates that for a particular LPFG, the sensitivity of a strongly overcoupled LP06 mode was found to be ∼2000 dB/RIU, while that of the LP07 mode having similar coupling strength was ∼550 dB/RIU in the surrounding refractive index range from 1.458 to 1.520. The results have been validated experimentally.

Sol-Gel-Based Titania-Silica Thin Film Overlay for Long Period Fiber Grating-Based Biosensors.

An evanescent wave optical fiber biosensor based on titania-silica-coated long period grating (LPG) is presented. The chemical overlay, which increases the refractive index (RI) sensitivity of the sensor, consists of a sol-gel-based titania-silica thin film, deposited along the sensing portion of the fiber by means of the dip-coating technique. Changing both the sol viscosity and the withdrawal speed during the dip-coating made it possible to adjust the thickness of the film overlay, which is a crucial parameter for the sensor performance. After the functionalization of the fiber surface using a methacrylic acid/methacrylate copolymer, an antibody/antigen (IgG/anti-IgG) assay was carried out to assess the performance of sol-gel based titania-silica-coated LPGs as biosensors. The analyte concentration was determined from the wavelength shift at the end of the binding process and from the initial binding rate. This is the first time that a sol-gel based titania-silica-coated LPG is proposed as an effective and feasible label-free biosensor. The specificity of the sensor was validated by performing the same model assay after spiking anti-IgG into human serum. With this structured LPG, detection limits of the order of tens of micrograms per liter (10(-11) M) are attained.