Mode Transitions and Thickness Measurements During Deposition of Nanoscale TiO₂ Coatings on Tilted Fiber Bragg Gratings

The mode transition is a phenomenon observed in thin film coated long period fiber gratings (LPGs) and single-mode multimode single-mode (SMS) fibers for certain values of the coating thickness and refractive index, resulting in increased sensitivity for sensing applications. It is shown here that mode transitions occur simultaneously for a large number of mode resonances in the transmission spectra of tilted fiber Bragg gratings (TFBG) measured during the deposition of ∼350 nm thick TiO ₂ coatings by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). In TFBGs, the mode transition shows up as an acceleration of the resonance wavelength shift vs thickness, but without fading of the resonance amplitude. Furthermore, the results show that the mode transition for cladding modes with predominantly “TE” polarization at the cladding boundary is significantly sharper than that of predominantly “TM” polarized modes and that it occurs at a smaller coating thickness (<100 nm vs >200 nm). Finally, using a separately determined coating refractive index (2.14, by ellipsometry on witness flats deposited simultaneously) and simulations of the resonance shifts of the TFBG with coating thickness, it is demonstrated that a TFBG connected to a spectral interrogation system can be used to measure the growth of a coating on the surface of the fiber in real time.