Towards microstructured optical fibre sensors: surface analysis of silanised lead silicate glass

While protocols to surface functionalise silica glass platforms are well-established, the surface coating of other glass types have received limited attention. Here we fully characterise the surface attachment of a fluoroionophore on extruded lead silicate glass slides and demonstrate these slides as a model for investigating the surface chemistry in a microstructured optical fibre (MOF). This model system allows the utilization of multiple, complementary surface-sensitive techniques that cannot be used within the internal surface of the fibre structure. In characterising the fluoroionophore attachment, we observe that the fluorescence intensity from fluorescence imaging, the atomic nitrogen percentage measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), the carbonyl bond component (287.5 eV) in the XPS high resolution carbon spectrum, and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) of the time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) data can be used to provide relative quantification of the concentration of an attached fluoroionophore. We also show the first use of ToF-SIMS imaging and depth profiling of the Pb content within a glass substrate to provide information on the coverage provided by the coating and the relative thickness of an organic coating. Combined, these techniques provide a comprehensive picture of the coated glass surface that facilitates fibre sensor development.Herbert T. C. Foo, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Christopher J. Sumby, Tanya M. Monr

Surface analysis and treatment of extruded fluoride phosphate glass preforms for optical fiber fabrication

First published: 20 April 2016Fabrication of fluoride phosphate glass optical fibers using the extrusion method for preform fabrication has been studied using the commercial Schott N-FK51A glass. The extrusion step was found to create a surface layer of differing composition from the bulk glass material, leading to defects drawn down onto the optical fiber surface during fiber fabrication, resulting in high loss and fragile fibers. Similar phenomena have also been observed in other fluoride-based glasses. Removal of this surface layer from preforms prior to fiber drawing was shown to improve optical fiber loss from >5 dB/m to 0.5–1.0 dB/m. The removal of this surface layer is therefore necessary to produce low-loss fluoride phosphate optical fibers.Christopher A. G. Kalnins, Nigel A. Spooner, Tanya M. Monro, and Heike Ebendorff-Heideprie

High temperature sensing with single material silica optical fibers

We present recent developments in high temperature sensing using single material silica optical fibers. By using a single material fiber, in this case a suspended-core fiber, we avoid effects due to dopant diffusion at high temperature. This allows the measurement of temperatures up to the dilatometric softening temperature at approximately 1300°C. We demonstrate and compare high temperature sensing in two configurations. The first exploits a small section of single material fiber spliced onto a length of conventional single mode fiber, which operates through multimode interference. The second utilizes a type II fiber Bragg grating written via femtosecond laser ablation.Stephen C. Warren-Smith, Linh V. Nguyen, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, and Tanya M. Monr

Photodetector based on Vernier-enhanced Fabry-Perot interferometers with a photo-thermal coating

We present a new type of fiber-coupled photodetector with a thermal-based optical sensor head, which enables it to operate even in the presence of strong electro-magnetic interference and in electrically sensitive environments. The optical sensor head consists of three cascaded Fabry-Perot interferometers. The end-face surface is coated with copper-oxide micro-particles embedded in hydrogel, which is a new photo-thermal coating that can be readily coated on many different surfaces. Under irradiation, photons are absorbed by the photo-thermal coating, and are converted into heat, changing the optical path length of the probing light and induces a resonant wavelength shift. For white-light irradiation, the photodetector exhibits a power sensitivity of 760 pm/mW, a power detection limit of 16.4 μW (i.e. specific detectivity of 2.2 × 105 cm.√Hz/W), and an optical damage threshold of ~100 mW or ~800 mW/cm2. The response and recovery times are 3.0 s (~90% of change within 100 ms) and 16.0 s respectively.George Y. Chen, Xuan Wu, Xiaokong Liu, David G. Lancaster, Tanya M. Monro and Haolan X

Extrusion of complex preforms for microstructured optical fibers

We report a significant advance in preform extrusion and die design, which has allowed for the first time the fabrication of complex structured preforms using soft glass and polymer billets. Structural preform distortions are minimized by adjustment of the material flow within the die. The low propagation loss of an extruded complex bismuth glass fiber demonstrates the potential of this advanced extrusion technique for the fabrication of novel soft glass and polymer microstructured fiber designs.Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem and Tanya M. Monr

Microwire fibers for low-loss THz transmission

This paper was presented at Smart Structures, Devices, and Systems, which was a sub-conference contained within Smart Materials, Nano- and Micro-Smart Systems Symposium (10-13 December 2006 : Adelaide, South Australia). This paper was published in Smart Structures, Devices, and Systems III, edited by Said F. Al-Sarawi, Proc. of SPIE Vol. 6414, 64140I and is made available as an electronic reprint with permission of SPIE. One print or electronic copy may be made for personal use only. Systematic or multiple reproduction, distribution to multiple locations via electronic or other means, duplication of any material in this paper for a fee or for commercial purposes, or modification of the content of the paper are prohibited.In this paper, we will investigate microwire fibers for low-loss terahertz transmission. Microwires, air-clad wire waveguides with diameter smaller than the operating wavelength (a few μm), have an enhanced evanescent field and tight wave confinement resulting in a low loss waveguide structure for the terahertz (T-ray) frequency regime. Based on our experimental data for the bulk material absorption of four glasses (F2, SF6, SF57 and Bismuth) and a polymer (PMMA), we calculate the normalized field distribution, power fraction outside the wire and effective loss. It will be shown that regardless of material, the effective loss of all microwires converges to the same order < 0.01 cm -1.Shaghik Atakaramians, Shahraam Afshar Vahid, Bernd M. Fischer, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Tanya Monro and Derek Abbotthttp://spie.org/Documents/ConferencesExhibitions/au06-final.pd

Highly nonlinear and dispersion-flattened fiber design for ultrafast phase-sensitive amplification

The properties of phase-sensitive amplification (PSA) in highly nonlinear fibers are studied. We present a soft glass fiber designed for high nonlinearity and broadband, low dispersion and simulate its performance as a PSA device for ultrafast bitrate signals at 640 Gb/s. The effect of the fiber design parameters on its PSA performance have been studied and the final design has been optimized using a genetic algorithm to have a high nonlinearity and low, flat dispersion. This design has subsequently been compared to other highly nonlinear fibers in order to highlight the effect of both using soft glass and the design and optimization technique. Modelled fiber performance shows squeezing of phase noise in a 5 m length of fiber with 32 dBm total power in the signal and pumps. The fiber length we have used in our model is two orders of magnitude shorter than the state of the art silica based PSA devices for comparable power levels. In addition, fabrication tolerance modelling is done to show that our fiber design is better able to manage fluctuations in the dispersion due to the high nonlinearity.H. Tilanka Munasinghe, Shahraam Afshar Vahid, and Tanya M. Monr

Microstructured optical fiber-based biosensors: reversible and nanoliter-scale measurement of zinc ions

Published: May 6, 2016Sensing platforms that allow rapid and efficient detection of metal ions would have applications in disease diagnosis and study, as well as environmental sensing. Here, we report the first microstructured optical fiber-based biosensor for the reversible and nanoliter-scale measurement of metal ions. Specifically, a photoswitchable spiropyran Zn(2+) sensor is incorporated within the microenvironment of a liposome attached to microstructured optical fibers (exposed-core and suspended-core microstructured optical fibers). Both fiber-based platforms retains high selectivity of ion binding associated with a small molecule sensor, while also allowing nanoliter volume sampling and on/off switching. We have demonstrated that multiple measurements can be made on a single sample without the need to change the sensor. The ability of the new sensing platform to sense Zn(2+) in pleural lavage and nasopharynx of mice was compared to that of established ion sensing methodologies such as inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) and a commercially available fluorophore (Fluozin-3), where the optical-fiber-based sensor provides a significant advantage in that it allows the use of nanoliter (nL) sampling when compared to ICP-MS (mL) and FluoZin-3 (μL). This work paves the way to a generic approach for developing surface-based ion sensors using a range of sensor molecules, which can be attached to a surface without the need for its chemical modification and presents an opportunity for the development of new and highly specific ion sensors for real time sensing applications.Sabrina Heng, Christopher A. McDevitt, Roman Kostecki, Jacqueline R. Morey, Bart A. Eijkelkamp, Heike Ebendorff-Heidepriem, Tanya M. Monro, and Andrew D. Abel