Direct 3D-printed ring-resonator photonic circuit on a dual core fiber tip for remote sensing applications

On-chip optical sensors using ring- and disk-resonators have many potential sensing applications, yet robust and efficient fiber-to-chip coupling and the differing form factor between the two pose deployment challenges. To resolve this, we 3D-printed a ring-resonator onto the tip of a dual-core fiber and demonstrate its use as a remote temperature sensor. The fiber-tip optical circuit is fabricated using direct laser writing (DLW) with two-photon absorption photopolymer material IP-Dip, forming micrometer-scale waveguide cores having a refractive index of 1.53 with a surrounding air cladding. We connect the two-fiber cores by a printed bus-waveguide, utilizing total internal reflection mirrors, allowing light launched into one core to be guided back to the other core. Furthermore, a DLW printed racetrack resonator evanescently coupled to the bus waveguide (Q ∼ 3000) imposes spectral dips on resonance wavelengths. Light sent down into one core is interrogated upon return from the second core, all from the distal end of the sensor. When the sensing end’s temperature is varied, we find a sensitivity of 78 pm/K, due to the polymer’s thermo-optic index variation. The ring-resonator could be functionalized for other sensing applications.