Fabrication and characterization of a diffraction-grating transducer in thin polybutadiene rubber film for sensing dynamical strain.

Surface relief gratings are holographically fabricated in thin polybutadiene rubber films produced by both spin coating and dip coating on glass and metal substrates. These thin-film gratings are characterized for their application as efficient transducers for detecting dynamic strain in solids. The performance of these rubber-grating transducers is compared to surface-mounted fiber Bragg gratings for a range of frequencies between 50 Hz and 30 kHz. Dynamic-strain sensitivity around 1 nepsilon/radicalHz is recorded for thin rubber-film grating transducers.