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Fabrication and Testing of Photonic Thermometers
Published on: October 24, 2018
Multilayer metal/metal-oxide diffractive structure for photonic temperature sensing
Loukas Athanasekos1, Miltiadis Vasileiadis, Anna Tsigara
1Department of Materials Science, University of Patras, Rio, Patras 26500, Greece. athanasekos@eie.gr
Optics Letters
|December 3, 2010
Summary
Researchers developed novel metal/metal-oxide gratings for precise photonic temperature sensing. These structures exhibit a significant, measurable change in light diffraction with temperature variations, enabling remote sensing applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Optics
- Nanotechnology
Background:
- Development of advanced optical sensors is crucial for real-time monitoring in various applications.
- Metal/metal-oxide nanostructures offer unique optical properties for sensing applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To design and fabricate multilayer metal/metal-oxide surface relief diffractive gratings.
- To investigate the temperature dependence of diffractive effects for photonic temperature sensing.
- To demonstrate remote, spatially localized temperature sensing using these grating structures.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of alternating Platinum (Pt) and Tin Oxide (SnO(x)) layers.
- Optical interrogation at 633 nm to measure reflection and transmission.
- Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis (RCWA) for theoretical validation.
Main Results:
- Demonstrated temperature-dependent diffractive effects in Pt/SnO(x) multilayer gratings.
- Achieved a sensitivity of 10% per °C in the zeroth-order transmission mode.
- Experimental results showed good agreement with RCWA simulations.
Conclusions:
- Multilayer metal/metal-oxide gratings are effective for photonic temperature sensing.
- The developed structures enable remote and spatially localized temperature measurements.
- The study validates the use of RCWA for analyzing such composite optical elements.

