Real time optical pressure sensing for tactile detection using gold nanocomposite material

For the first time, we propose in this work a new concept of optical tactile pressure sensing. We develop a sensor integrating an optical tapered fiber force sensor based on electromagnetic (EM) coupling effect. The sensor consists of a tapered multimode Si fiber which couples the EM field coming from a broad band lamp source with the flexible gold/PDMS nanocomposite material (GNM). PDMS polymer film was used since it is suitable for the generation of gold nanoparticles starting from gold precursors and consecutively is suitable for light coupling: the formed gold nanoparticles increase the effective refractive index of the PDMS and support the EM coupling with the tapered region. By applying different weights that can be translated to pressure forces to the sensor, we experimentally observe in real time the intensity reduction of the transmittivity response at the output of the fiber sensor. This effect is most likely due to displacement of gold nanoparticles near the tapered region during the pressure application. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.