Effect of the electric field induced birefringence on the slab waveguide evanescent-wave sensor sensitivity

We have investigated the potential of using the E-field induced birefringence for improving the sensitivity of uniaxial anisotropic slab waveguide sensor based on evanescent wave interactions. LiNbO3 waveguide core was used as an example. We have calculated the sensor sensitivity formulas for the two kinds of modes propagating simultaneously in the waveguide sensor. In our study, we have distinguished between two different cases. The first case when the electric field is applied along the optic axis (+c) of the LiNbO3 wave guiding film (positive electric field); the second case when the electric field is applied opposite to the optic axis (-c) of such uniaxial crystal (negative electric field). The obtained results showed that, for positive electric field, increasing the electric field induces an increasing of the total anisotropy which causes decreasing on sensor sensitivity. However, for negative electric field, the increase of absolute values of negative electric field induces a decrease of the total anisotropy, the latter increases the sensor sensitivity. On the other hand, the study of the physical parameters on the sensor sensitivity showed that, to maximize the sensor sensitivity, it is advisable to use isotropic substrate that has a refractive index as closer as possible to the measurand index.