Performance of Grating Couplers Used in the Optical Switch Configuration.

Surface plasmon resonance is an effect widely used for biosensing. Biosensors based on this effect operate in different configurations, including the use of diffraction gratings as couplers. Gratings are highly tunable and are easy to integrate into a fluidic system due to their planar configuration.

Differential Sensing with Replicated Plasmonic Gratings Interrogated in the Optical Switch Configuration.

A new plasmonic configuration is proposed for application in a sensor and demonstrated for the detection of variations in the bulk refractive index of solutions. The configuration consists of monitoring two diffracted orders resulting from the interaction of a TM-polarized optical beam incident on a grating coupler, operating based on an effect termed the "optical switch". The two monitored diffracted orders enable differential measurements which cancel the drift and perturbations common to both, leading to an improved detection limit, as demonstrated experimentally.

Versatile Zirconium Oxide (ZrO) Sol-Gel Development for the Micro-Structuring of Various Substrates (Nature and Shape) by Optical and Nano-Imprint Lithography.

Zirconium oxide (ZrO) is a well-studied and promising material due to its remarkable chemical and physical properties. It is used, for example, in coatings for corrosion protection layer, wear and oxidation, in optical applications (mirror, filters), for decorative components, for anti-counterfeiting solutions and for medical applications. ZrO can be obtained as a thin film using different deposition methods such as physical vapor deposition (PVD) or chemical vapor deposition (CVD).