Fabrication Process for PDMS Polymer/Silica Long-Period Fiber Grating Sensors

We present a long-period fiber grating sensor composed of a tapered optical fiber embedded in a polymeric grating. The fabrication process is based on a mold-replica approach, thus yielding low-cost reproducible structures. We evaluate the sensitivity to temperature and refractive index changes showing that the proposed structures could render useful for developing sensors with biocompatible polymers.