Woo-Hu Tsai

Side-polished multimode fiber biosensor based on surface plasmon resonance with halogen light

A side-polished multimode fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) as the transducing element with a halogen light source is proposed. The SPR fiber sensor is side polished until half the core is closed and coated with a 37 nm gold thin film by dc sputtering. The SPR curve on the optical spectrum is described by an optical spectrum analyzer and can sense a range of widths in wavelengths of SPR effects. The measurement system using the halogen light source is constructed for several real-time detections that are carried out for the measurement of the index liquid detections for the sensitivity analysis. The sensing fiber is demonstrated with a series of refractive index (RI) liquids and set for several experiments, including the stability, repeatability, and resolution calibration. The results for the halogen light source with the resolution of the measurement based on wavelength interrogation were 3 x 10(-6) refractive index units (RIUs). The SPR dip shifted in wavelength is used as a measure of the RI change at a surface, and this RI change varies directly with the number of biomolecules at the surface. The SPR dip shift in wavelength, which was hybridized at 0.1 microM of the target DNA to the probe DNA, was 8.66 nm. The all-fiber multimode SPR sensor, which has the advantages of being low cost, being disposable, having high stability and linearity, being free of labeling, and having potential for real-time detection, permit the sensor and system to be used in biochemical sensing and environmental monitoring.

A novel structure for the intrinsic Fabry-Perot fiber-optic temperature sensor

A novel structure of the intrinsic Fabry-Perot interference (IFPI) fiber temperature sensor is presented. The sensor uses two different core diameter fibers and produces a reflective mirror by fusing uncoated bare fibers. This procedure not only solves the problem of controlling thickness and reflectance of the thin film but also provides easier and cheaper technologies for IFPI fiber sensors. Theoretical and experimental aspects of the intrinsic Fabry-Perot cavity are described. Both theoretical and experimental results from this novel structure show good agreement with those from the traditional Fabry-Perot fiber sensor.

Growth of ZnO thin films on interdigital transducer/Corning 7059 glass substrates by two-step fabrication methods for surface acoustic wave applications

ZnO films were grown on interdigital transducer (IDT)/Corning 7059 glass substrates by RF planar magnetron sputtering using two-step fabrication methods for surface acoustic wave (SAW) applications. The crystalline structure of the as-deposited ZnO films was characterized by x-ray diffraction (XRD) and x-ray rocking curve analysis. The SAW properties, including coupling coefficient and insertion loss, were evaluated and compared with the theoretical results. ZnO films deposited by the two-step fabrication method exhibited a lower insertion loss and a closer agreement between the experimental coupling coefficients and the corresponding theoretical values in comparison with films deposited by the one-step fabrication method. The results could be useful in the design of high-coupling low-loss SAW devices.

Cross-point analysis for a multimode fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance

A novel analysis based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with a side-polished multimode fiber and a white-light (halogen light) source is presented. The sensing system is a multimode optical fiber in which half of the core has been polished away and a 40 nm gold layer is deposited on to the polished surface by dc sputter. The SPR dip in the optical spectrum is investigated with an optical spectrum analyzer (OSA). In our SPR fiber sensor, the use of liquids with different refractive indices leads to a shift in the spectral dip in the SPR curve. The cross point (CP) of the two SPR spectra obtained from the refractive-index liquid and the deionized water measurements was observed with the OSA. The CP is shifted sensitively in wavelength from 630 to 1300 nm relative to a change in the refractive index of the liquid from 1.34 to 1.46. High sensitivities of 1.9 x 10(-6) refractive-index units (RIUs) in the range of the refractive index of the liquid from 1.40 to 1.44 of 5.7 x 10(-7) RIUs above the value of 1.44 are proposed and demonstrated in our novel SPR analysis.

An Enhanced Optical Multimode Fiber Sensor Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance With Cascaded Structure

A cascaded side-polished multimode fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed. The sensing area is a multimode optical fiber in which half of the core has been polished away and a 40-nm gold thin film is deposited on to the polished surface. The cascaded structure is demonstrated in the small difference variation of the refractive index between the two solutions, deionized (DI) water and phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The transmitted intensity of SPR fiber sensor in dynamic measurement between single SPR fiber structure and the cascaded structure achieved to increase the variation from 73% to 58% for DI water and 70.5% to 53% for PBS, and enhance the difference between DI water and PBS from 2.5% to 5% is obtained in the experiment. The stability and the double variation to enhance the high sensitivity of the intensity measurement is achieved to be 2 times 10-5 refractive-index units.

Variational analysis of single-mode graded-core W-fibers

A new trial function is proposed to obtain the propagation constant, the normalized group delay, and the modal dispersion parameter of single-mode graded-core W-type fibers. This function uses only simple elementary functions to approximate the fundamental modal fields. In many cases of study, we show that the present trial function gives a significant improvement over the existing trial functions and is very useful in the analysis of fibers and related devices.

Extended Gaussian approximation for single-mode graded-index fibers

A new trial function which extends the generalized Gaussian method for the study of weakly guiding single-mode fibers is presented. This function uses only simple elementary functions to approximate the fundamental modal fields. In many cases of study, we show that the present trial function gives a significant improvement over the existing trial functions, and it is very useful in the analysis of fibers and related devices. >

Variational analysis of modal-coupling efficiency between graded-index waveguides

Some new trial functions that extend the Hermite-Gaussian (HG) function are proposed for solving the modal coupling of one planar graded-index waveguide region to another and with the assumption of no reflections, based on the scalar variational principle. In many cases in this work, we show that the present trial functions give a significant improvement over the HG trial function and are very close to the exact numerical results. Since approximate results in a closed form can be derived by variational approach, this analysis is also very useful in the modal-coupling design of the other integrated-optical devices. >

An In-situ Real-Time Optical Fiber Sensor Based on Surface Plasmon Resonance for Monitoring the Growth of TiO2 Thin Films

An optical fiber sensor based on surface plasmon resonance (SPR) is proposed for monitoring the thickness of deposited nano-thin films. A side-polished multimode SPR optical fiber sensor with an 850 nm-LD is used as the transducing element for real-time monitoring of the deposited TiO2 thin films. The SPR optical fiber sensor was installed in the TiO2 sputtering system in order to measure the thickness of the deposited sample during TiO2 deposition. The SPR response declined in real-time in relation to the growth of the thickness of the TiO2 thin film. Our results show the same trend of the SPR response in real-time and in spectra taken before and after deposition. The SPR transmitted intensity changes by approximately 18.76% corresponding to 50 nm of deposited TiO2 thin film. We have shown that optical fiber sensors utilizing SPR have the potential for real-time monitoring of the SPR technology of nanometer film thickness. The compact size of the SPR fiber sensor enables it to be positioned inside the deposition chamber, and it could thus measure the film thickness directly in real-time. This technology also has potential application for monitoring the deposition of other materials. Moreover, in-situ real-time SPR optical fiber sensor technology is in inexpensive, disposable technique that has anti-interference properties, and the potential to enable on-line monitoring and monitoring of organic coatings.

A Field Emission Light Source Using Reflective Metal Groove Anode and Long Narrow Stripe Cathode

A novel reflective metal anode with different groove structures and a set of parallel long narrow stripe Carbon nanotube (CNT) cathodes to fabricate a 7 inches field emission backlight unit (CNT-FEBLU) has been carried out in this paper. In comparison with a simple diode structure, which has the same stripe cathode unit with screen printing phosphor layer on ITO glass surface as the anode, the reflective metal anode has some advantages such as sustaining high field emission current, no unexpected arcing, and high illumination and uniformity without phosphor degradation. The results show that a reflective metal anode not only conducts the residual charges and heat from the phosphor surface effectively, but also reflects the light to one side of the panel through the cathode end and exhibits high illumination without obvious obstacle by the narrow stripe cathodes. The luminance of the reflective metal groove anode we proposed is 11530 cd/m2, with the emission current density of 1.52 mA/cm2 under the electric field about 1.07 V/μm.