Mid-infrared surface plasmon polariton chemical sensing on fiber-coupled ITO coated glass

TL;DR

This paper introduces a fiber-coupled ITO coated glass sensor operating in the mid-infrared range for chemical sensing, utilizing 3D laser written waveguides to efficiently excite surface plasmon polaritons for biological and chemical applications.

Contribution

It presents a novel fiber-coupled ITO coated glass sensor with efficient mid-IR coupling via 3D laser written waveguides for surface plasmon polariton chemical sensing.

Findings

Successful excitation of SPPs using a mid-IR fiber supercontinuum source and diode laser.

Efficient coupling achieved with 3D laser written waveguides.

Potential applications in biological and chemical sensing.

Abstract

A novel fiber-coupled ITO coated glass slide sensor for performing surface plasmon polariton chemical monitoring in the 3.5 um mid-IR range is reported. Efficient mid-IR fiber coupling is achieved with 3D laser written waveguides, and the coupling of glass waveguide modes to ITO SPPs is driven by the varying phase matching conditions of different aqueous analytes across the anomalous dispersion range determined by their molecular fingerprints. By means of using both a mid-IR fiber supercontinuum source and a diode laser the excitation of SPPs is demonstrated. The efficient optical monitoring of mid-IR SPPs in smart glass could have a broad range of applications in biological and chemical sensing.