The Role of Nanoanalytics in the Development of Organic-Inorganic Nanohybrids—Seeing Nanomaterials as They Are

The functional properties of organic-inorganic (O-I) hybrids can be easily tuned by combining system components and parameters, making this class of novel nanomaterials a crucial element in various application fields. Unfortunately, the manufacturing of organic-inorganic nanohybrids still suffers from mechanical instability and insufficient synthesis reproducibility. The control of the composition and structure of nanosurfaces themselves is a specific analytical challenge and plays an important role in the future reproducibility of hybrid nanomaterials surface properties and response. Therefore, appropriate and sufficient analytical methodologies and technical guidance for control of their synthesis, characterization and standardization of the final product quality at the nanoscale level should be established. In this review, we summarize and compare the analytical merit of the modern analytical methods, viz. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), RAMAN spectroscopy, surface plasmon resonance (SPR) and several mass spectrometry (MS)-based techniques, that is, inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), single particle ICP-MS (sp-ICP-MS), laser ablation coupled ICP-MS (LA-ICP-MS), time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS), liquid chromatography mass spectrometry (LC-MS) utilized for characterization of O-I nanohybrids. Special attention is given to laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (LDI-MS) as a reliable nanoanalytical platform for characterization of O-I hybrid nanomaterials, their quality, design verification and validation

Temperature Dependence of Macrobending Loss in All-fiber Bend Loss Edge Filter

A theoretical model for macrobending-induced temperature dependent loss (TDL) for a standard singlemode fiber (SMF28) with dual coating layers is presented, with good agreement demonstrated between theoretical calculations and experimental results. The impact of temperature on two examples of an all-fiber based edge filter is also investigated theoretically and experimentally and using the developed model, it is shown that it is possible to predict the impact of temperature variations on an all-fiber based edge filter

Analysis and Performance Evaluation of an All-Fiber Wide Range Interrogation System for a Bragg Grating Sensor Array

Analysis and performance evaluation of a macro-bend ¯ber based interrogation system for a Bragg grating sensor array is presented. Due to the characteristic properties of the macro-bend ¯ber ¯lter such as polarization and temperature dependence and the total noise associated with the ratiometric system, a best ¯t ratio slope is required to interrogate multiple FBGs whose peak wavelengths are spread over a wide wavelength range, rather than the optimal slope for individual FBG. In this paper for investigation we have used an FBG array with 5 FBGs with peak re°ected wavelengths lying between 1525 nm and 1575 nm. The analysis of the system is carried out and a ¯ber ¯lter with a slope which covers a wavelength range of 1525-1575 nm is selected which ensures a resolution and accuracy for all the FBG sensors in the array as close as possible to that which would be achieved with a ¯lter with an optimal slope for each FBG. Performance evaluation of the system is carried out and static strain, dynamic strain and temperature is measured with the developed interrogation system

Simple Design Technique for a Triangular FBG Filter Based on a Linearly Chirped Grating

A novel and simple design technique for triangular spectrum response of fibre Bragg grating (FBG) is pre- 21 sented based on a linear chirped grating. It is shown that this method is fast and can give a straightfor- 22 ward solution to meet a design target. The numerical simulation examples verified the effectiveness of 23 the design method. A general approach to design for multichannel triangular spectral responses for 24 FBG filters is proposed, which provides a solution that achieves a minimum change of refractive index 25 for the fibre

Photonic Crystal Fiber Interferometer for Dew Detection

A novel method for dew detection based on photonic crystal fiber (PCF) interferometer that operates in reflection mode is presented in this paper. The fabrication of the sensor head is simple since it only involves cleaving and fusion splicing. The sensor shows good sensitivity to dew formation with a large wavelength peak shift of the interference pattern at the onset of dew formation. The device’s response to ambient humidity and temperature are also studied and reported in this paper. From our experiment it is also concluded that by attaching a thermoelectric cooler with temperature feedback, the sensor head demonstrated can be used as a miniature dew point hygrometer

Temperature Dependence of Macrobending Loss in All-fiber Bend Loss Edge Filter

A theoretical model for macrobending-induced temperature dependent loss (TDL) for a standard singlemode fiber (SMF28) with dual coating layers is presented, with good agreement demonstrated between theoretical calculations and experimental results. The impact of temperature on two examples of an all-fiber based edge filter is also investigated theoretically and experimentally and using the developed model, it is shown that it is possible to predict the impact of temperature variations on an all-fiber based edge filter

Optical Fiber Sensors for Smart Composite Materials and Structures

Composite material structures are widely used in the aerospace, marine, aviation, transport, sport/leisure and civil engineering industries. Such composite material structures are frequently subjected to external perturbations and varying environmental conditions, which may cause the structures to suffer from fatique damage and/or failure, and thus require real-time structural health monitoring (SHM). Of necessity, the diagnosis process and condition monitoring of composite structures are usually carried out during their working life. The goal of such diagnosis is to detect, identify, locate, and assess the defects that my affect the safety or performance of a structure

Tunable Erbium-doped Fiber Ring Laser with a Polymer Micro Bottle Resonator

A new tunable fiber laser structure based on an erbium-doped fiber ring laser (FRL) and a polymer-based microbottle resonator (PMBR) as the wavelength selective filter is proposed and demonstrated. The tunability of the laser output in response to axial strain of up to 253.6 με applied to the PMBR is demonstrated experimentally. When the strain was applied to the PMBR’s long axis, the central lasing wavelength shifted towards shorter wavelengths in a linear fashion. The laser\u27s strain sensitivity was determined to be 0.69 pm/με. The proposed strain-tunable PMBR laser offers the advantages of simple structure, low cost, robust performance, and has the potential for applications in sensing and tunable micro lasers