Fabrication of microgratings on the ends of standard optical fibers by the electrostatic self-assembly monolayer process

The electrostatic self-assembly monolayer process has been utilized for what is believed to be the first time to deposit quarter-wavelength stacks on the end faces of cleaved and polished optical fibers. Standard multimode optical fibers as well as single-mode optical fibers were used as substrates with different coating materials to fabricate broadband filters, and the experimentally measured spectral responses of these devices are shown. These optical filter structures were employed to develop chemical sensors that use an unperturbed reference wavelength to normalize the output signal.