  A novel fiber-coupled ITO coated glass slide sensor for performing surface
plasmon polariton chemical monitoring in the 3.5 um mid-IR range is reported.
Efficient mid-IR fiber coupling is achieved with 3D laser written waveguides,
and the coupling of glass waveguide modes to ITO SPPs is driven by the varying
phase matching conditions of different aqueous analytes across the anomalous
dispersion range determined by their molecular fingerprints. By means of using
both a mid-IR fiber supercontinuum source and a diode laser the excitation of
SPPs is demonstrated. The efficient optical monitoring of mid-IR SPPs in smart
glass could have a broad range of applications in biological and chemical
sensing.
