Self-referenced waveguide grating sensor

Like any other sensor system, performances of waveguide grating couplers are affected by adverse effects such as noise and drift, mainly limiting the devices' resolution and long-term stability. It is therefore often required to reference the measurement with a secondary, parallel sensor to decrease these undesired influences. Here we present a simple but effective method to self-reference a label-free waveguide grating coupler by partially coating and thereby passivating the sensitive area with an inert layer. The presented waveguide grating chip design offers the advantage of internal self-referencing for adverse effects, such as inherent system instabilities, mechanical disturbance, or temperature drift, without the need of a sacrificial reference channel. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America