Nancy Meng Ying Zhang

Design and analysis of surface plasmon resonance sensor based on high-birefringent microstructured optical fiber

Optical fiber based surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors are favored by their high sensitivity, compactness, remote and in situ sensing capabilities. Microstructured optical fibers (MOFs) possess microfluidic channels extended along the entire length right next to the fiber core, thereby enabling the infiltrated biochemical analyte to access the evanescent field of guided light. Since SPR can only be excited by the polarization vertical to metal surface, external perturbation could induce the polarization crosstalk in fiber core, thus leading to the instability of sensor output. Therefore for the first time we analyze how the large birefringence suppresses the impact of polarization crosstalk. We propose a high-birefringent MOF based SPR sensor with birefringence larger than 4 × 10−4 as well as easy infiltration of microfluidic analyte, while maintaining sensitivity as high as 3100 nm/RIU.

In-line optofluidic refractive index sensing in a side-channel photonic crystal fiber

An in-line optofluidic refractive index (RI) sensing platform is constructed by splicing a side-channel photonic crystal fiber (SC-PCF) with side-polished single mode fibers. A long-period grating (LPG) combined with an intermodal interference between LP01 and LP11 core modes is used for sensing the RI of the liquid in the side channel. The resonant dip shows a nonlinear wavelength shift with increasing RI over the measured range from 1.3330 to 1.3961. The RI response of this sensing platform for a low RI range of 1.3330-1.3780 is approximately linear, and exhibits a sensitivity of 1145 nm/RIU. Besides, the detection limit of our sensing scheme is improved by around one order of magnitude by introducing the intermodal interference.

Magnetic field sensor based on magnetic- fluid-coated long-period fiber grating

Magnetic fluid is a promising material for sensing applications due to its remarkable magneto-optic properties. An optical fiber magnetic field sensor was developed using a long-period grating (LPG) coated with magnetic fluid. Magnetic fluid undergoes magnetization, aggregation, and phase transitions when it is under an external magnetic field. Optical properties changes that induced by the magnetic field can be sensed by the LPG of which resonant wavelength and transmission minimum are highly sensitive to the change of ambient medium. We demonstrate that the proposed sensor can maintain a high sensitivity of ~0.154 dB/Gauss at field strength of as low as ~7.4 Gauss.

Graphene enhanced surface plasmon resonance fiber-optic biosensor

We experimentally demonstrate a side-polished optical fiber based graphene-on-gold biosensor. Single layer of graphene is deposited to improve the sensitivity in single-stranded DNA detection. Our proposed biosensor provides a detection limit lower than 1 pM.

Highly sensitive magnetic field sensor using long-period fiber grating

We experimentally demonstrate a magnetic field sensor based on long-period fiber grating (LPG) and magnetic fluid. Our proposed sensor possesses a high sensitivity of ~0.154 dB/Gauss and a low measurement threshold of ~7.4 Gauss.

Highly sensitive gas refractometers based on optical microfiber modal interferometers operating at dispersion turning point

In most fiber-optic gas sensing applications where the interested refractive index (RI) is ~1.0, the sensitivities are greatly constrained by the large mismatch between the effective RI of the guided mode and the RI of the surrounding gaseous medium. This fundamental challenge necessitates the development of a promising fiber-optic sensing mechanism with the outstanding RI sensitivity to achieve reliable remote gas sensors. In this work, we report a highly sensitive gas refractometer based on a tapered optical microfiber modal interferometer working at the dispersion turning point (DTP). First, we theoretically analyze the essential conditions to achieve the DTP, the spectral characteristics, and the sensing performance at the DTP. Results show that nonadiabatic tapered optical microfibers with diameters of 1.8-2.4 µm possess the DTPs in the near-infrared range and the RI sensitivities can be improved significantly around the DTPs. Second, we experimentally verify the ultrahigh RI sensitivity around the DTP using a nonadiabatic tapered optical microfiber with a waist diameter of ~2 μm. The experimental observations match well with the simulation results and our proposed gas refractometer provides an exceptional sensitivity as high as -69984.3 ± 2363.3 nm/RIU.