Desmond M. Chow

Spider silk : a novel optical fibre for biochemical sensing

Whilst being thoroughly used in the textile industry and biomedical sector, silk has not yet been exploited for fibre optics-based sensing although silk fibres directly obtained from spiders can guide light and have shown early promises to being sensitive to some solvents. In this communication, a pioneering optical fibre sensor based on spider silk is reported, demonstrating for the first time the use of spider silk as an optical fibre sensor to detect polar solvents such as water, ammonia and acetic acid.

Exploring the Use of Native Spider Silk as an Optical Fiber for Chemical Sensing

A spider uses up to seven different types of silk, all having specific functions, as building material, weapon, and sensory organ to detect the presence of preys on its web. Recently, scientists have put under the limelight the extraordinary properties of this ancient material. Indeed, native silk, directly extracted from spiders, is a tough, biodegradable, and biocompatible thread used mainly for tissue engineering and textile applications. Blessed with outstanding optical properties, this protein strand can also be used as a bioresorbable optical fiber and is, moreover, intrinsically sensitive to chemical compounds. In this communication, the waveguiding properties of native dragline silk are assessed and a pioneering proof-of-concept experiment using pristine spider silk as an optical fiber to measure humidity content is demonstrated. The feasibility of using silk-based optical fiber chemical sensors is also discussed.

Frequency-domain technique to measure the inertial response of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering for acoustic impedance sensing

A frequency-domain method is proposed to measure the inertial response of forward stimulated Brillouin scattering, so that the acoustic impedance of a liquid medium outside an uncoated 30 m standard single-mode fibre can be sensed. The proposed technique overcomes the linewidth distortion present in the time-domain approach due to Kerr effect and reduce time and complexity for data post-processing. Experimental results demonstrate that acoustic impedances of water and ethanol agree well with the expected values.

Local activation of surface and hybrid acoustic waves in optical microwires

Elastic vibrations in subwavelength structures have gained importance recently in fundamental light-matter studies and various optoacoustic applications. Existing techniques have revealed the presence of distinct acoustic resonances inside silica microwires yet remain unable to individually localize them. Here, we locally activate distinct classes of acoustic resonances inside a tapered fiber using a phase-correlation distributed Brillouin method. Experimental results verify the presence of surface and hybrid acoustic waves at distinct fiber locations and demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, the first distributed surface acoustic wave measurement. This technique is important for understanding properties of optoacoustic interactions and enabling designs of novel optomechanical devices.

Distributed forward Brillouin sensor based on local light phase recovery

The distributed fibre sensing technology based on backward stimulated Brillouin scattering (BSBS) is experiencing a rapid development. However, all reported implementations of distributed Brillouin fibre sensors until today are restricted to detecting physical parameters inside the fibre core. On the contrary, forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (FSBS), due to its resonating transverse acoustic waves, is being studied recently to facilitate innovative detections in the fibre surroundings, opening sensing domains that are impossible with BSBS. Nevertheless, due to the co-propagating behaviour of the pump and scattered lights, it is a challenge to position-resolve FSBS information along a fibre. Here we show a distributed FSBS analysis based on recovering the FSBS induced phase change of the propagating light waves. A spatial resolution of 15 m is achieved over a length of 730 m and the local acoustic impedances of water and ethanol in a 30 m-long uncoated fibre segment are measured, agreeing well with the standard values.Conventional distributed Brillouin sensing allows real-time sampling at high spatial resolution, but is so far restricted to measuring quantities inside the fibre core. Here, Chow et al. demonstrate a distributed forward Brillouin sensor that is sensitive to quantities outside the fibre bulk.

Mapping the Uniformity of Optical Microwires Using Phase-Correlation Brillouin Distributed Measurements

The distributed Brillouin gain profile of an ultrathin optical microwire made of chalcogenide-glass is characterized using a phase-modulated correlation-domain measurement technique. Method resolves variations of uniformity below 5% along a 13 cm-long microwire.

Brillouin Distributed Optical Fiber Sensor Based on a Closed-Loop Configuration

A Brillouin optical time-domain analysis (BOTDA) method based on a closed-loop control system is proposed to track fast variations of the Brillouin frequency shift along the sensing fiber. While the method eliminates the gain spectral scanning, the exact distributed Brillouin frequency profile is retrieved directly from the output of a closed-loop controller with no need of postprocessing. Moreover, as the operating frequency is being continuously updated to follow the Brillouin frequency change, an unlimited temperature or strain measurement range can be achieved. Both theoretical analysis and experimental results validate that the closed-loop-controlled BOTDA acts as a low-pass filter that considerably rejects the noise from photodetector, with an efficiency that fundamentally outperforms basic averaging. By optimizing the closed-loop parameters, the measurement time is reduced from a few minutes to a couple of seconds compared with standard BOTDA, i.e., two orders of magnitude improvement in terms of measurement speed, while keeping the same accuracy and measurement conditions. If the sampling time interval that is limited by our instrument can be further reduced, the method offers the potentiality of km-range sensing with sub-second measurement time, with an unmatched favorable tradeoff between measurand accuracy and closed-loop delay.

Towards a new generation of fibre-optic chemical sensors based on spider silk threads

A spider uses up to seven different types of silk, all having specific functions, to build its web. For scientists, native silk — directly extracted from spiders — is a tough, biodegradable and biocompatible thread used mainly for tissue engineering and textile applications. Blessed with outstanding optical properties, this protein strand can also be used as an optical fibre and is, moreover, intrinsically sensitive to chemical compounds. In this communication, a pioneering proof-of-concept experiment using spider silk, in its pristine condition, as a new type of fibre-optic relative humidity sensor will be demonstrated and its potential for future applications discussed.

Weaving our way towards a new generation of fibre-optic chemical sensors based on spider silk

From the spiders perspective, silk is not only a building material but also a safety net, a weapon and a sensory organ to detect the presence of preys on its web. Indeed, this primeval material has been shaped over hundreds of millions of years by spiders to create a myriad of silk fibre types with different level of toughness, elasticity, stickiness depending on its attributed function in the web. From a human perspective, scientists are currently working on harnessing all the extraordinary properties of this material for applications spiders would never thought of, from biocompatible tissue engineering (enhancement of skin regeneration and nerve guides) to biodegradable electronics and development of specialised textile and composites. However, the potential of using spider silk fibre for chemical sensing has been overlooked. In this communication, we will explore the potential of using spider silk as a new type of fibre optic chemical sensor in a fully bio-inspired approach.

Spider silk thread as a fiber optic chemical sensor

Monitoring the properties of light transmitted through a thread of spider silk enables detection of trace amounts of chemical compounds.