Microscale diamond protection for a ZnO coated fiber optic sensor

The authors want to acknowledge the financial support of the Polish National Science Centre under Grant No. 2017/25/N/ST7/01610, the Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange NAWA under Bilateral exchange of scientists between France and Poland PHC Polonium PPN/BFR/2019/1/00005/U/00001, Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange under Iwanowska Programme PPN/IWA/2018/1/00026/U/00001, Polish National Agency for Academic Exchange under Iwanowska Programme PPN/IWA/2018/1/00058/U/00001, and DS Programs of Faculty of Electronics, Telecommunications and Informatics of Gdańsk University of Technology. KD thanks the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council for funding (Grant EP/P030017/1).Fiber optic sensors are widely used in environmental, biological and chemical sensing. Due to the demanding environmental conditions in which they can be used, there is a risk of damaging the sensor measurement head placed in the measuring field. Sensors using nanolayers deposited upon the fiber structure are particularly vulnerable to damage. A thin film placed on the surface of the fiber end-face can be prone to mechanical damage or deteriorate due to unwanted chemical reactions with the surrounding agent. In this paper, we investigated a sensor structure formed with a Zinc Oxide (ZnO) coating, deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) on the tip of a single-mode fiber. A nanocrystalline diamond sheet (NDS) attached over the ZnO is described. The diamond structure was synthesized in a Microwave Plasma Assisted Chemical Vapor Deposition System. The deposition processes of the nanomaterials, the procedure of attaching NDS to the fiber end-face covered with ZnO, and the results of optical measurements are presented.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe