We have proposed a novel planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical sensor to monitor the contamination in a flow-cell where water is continuously supplied through a water quality measurement system. We designed a PLC chip with a V-shape waveguide and the simulated its function as a sensor for monitoring contamination in a flow-cell using a numerical the FDTD (finite-difference time-domain) analysis. A novel cross type of waveguide was introduced to make the PLC chip of the V-shaped waveguide. The fabricated PLC was cut into the cross waveguide. A change in the optical propagation loss of the PLC sensor was observed after immersing the PLC sensor into city water. It was determined that the propagation loss of the PLC sensor was 3 dB at a wavelength of 1.55 μm in the city water for 15 days.

We proposed and demonstrated the double layered metallic nano-hole structure using polystyrene beads process to enhance the sensitivity of surface plasmon resonance (SPR). The double layered SPR structures are calculated using the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method for the width, thickness, and period of the metallic nano-hole structures. The thickness of the metal film and the metallic nano-hole is 30 and 20 nm in the 214 nm wide nano-hole size, respectively. The double layered SPR structures are fabricated with monolayer polystyrene beads of 420 nm wide. The sensitivities of the conventional SPR sensor and the double layered SPR sensor are obtained to 42.2 and 52.1 degree/RIU, respectively.

We have investigated the optical properties of plamonic waveguide with tapered structure based on InP material for photonic integrated circuit(PIC). The proposed plasmonic waveguide is covered with the Ag thin film to generate the plasmonic wave on metallic interface. The optical characteristics of plasmonic waveguide were calculated using the three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain method. The plasmonic waveguide was fabricated with the lengths of 2 to 10 μm and the widths of 400 to 700 nm, respectively. The plasmonic mode and optical loss were measured. The optimum plasmonic length is 10 μm and widths are 600 and 700 nm in the fabricated waveguide. This plasmonic waveguide can be directly integrated with other conventional optical devices and can be essential building blocks of PIC.