Key words: Fibre sensor, Bragg grating, long period grating, fs laser, civil, marine, aerospace and medical engineering
The Photonics Research Group at Aston numbers around 50 and has a major effort devoted to optical fibre sensors. The group has more than 15 years of experience in fibre grating fabrication and throughout this time has exploited the technology in the sensing field. Initially this was in civil, aerospace and marine engineering, but more recently we have been exploring applications in chemical, biochemical and medical sensing. Our research covers all aspects of grating sensing technology, from device fabrication, through interrogation and multiplexing techniques and on to system design. We work with both Bragg gratings, including tilted, chirped and sampled gratings and long period gratings. In addition, the group has expertise with interferometric sensors as well as distributed and plasmonic sensing.
A recent strategic move has been into the use of fs lasers for photoinscription and micromachining. This technology has huge potential, enabling the writing of waveguides and gratings in materials without the UV photosensitivity that is usually exploited for fibre Bragg gratings. It also permits machining of fibre and planar structures at the sub-micron level to create entirely new sensing devices, which can combine grating technology, microfluidics and micromechanics. The group possesses three fs laser systems allowing us access to a wide range of pulse parameters.
We have many collaborative partners, including universities and research institutes within the UK, the rest of Europe and further afield as well as a range of major international companies and SMEs. In the last decade the group has assisted in the spin-off of four start-up companies.
