Flying particle sensors in hollow-core photonic crystal fibre

Abstract

Optical fibre sensors make use of diverse physical effects to measure parameters such as strain, temperature and electric field. Here we introduce a new class of reconfigurable fibre sensor, based on a 'flying-particle' optically trapped inside a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre and illustrate its use in electric field and temperature sensing with high spatial resolution. The electric field distribution near the surface of a multi-element electrode is measured with a resolution of similar to 100 mu m by monitoring changes in the transmitted light signal due to the transverse displacement of a charged silica microparticle trapped within the hollow core. Doppler-based velocity measurements are used to map the gas viscosity, and thus the temperature, along a hollow-core photonic crystal fibre. The flying-particle approach represents a new paradigm in fibre sensors, potentially allowing multiple physical quantities to be mapped with high positional accuracy over kilometre-scale distances

Metal‐Dielectric Nanocavity for Real‐Time Tracing Molecular Events with Temperature Feedback

“…In light of the multifunctionality of the hybrid nanocavity, its performance should be critically discussed in details. We compare our design with numerous approaches to nanoscale thermometry, heating and monitoring of molecular events, which have been developed for biomedical, cell biological and chemical applications, as well as for material science, physics, and engineering of nanodevices (i)Despite the diameter of the focused radiation (860 nm) we use in Raman measurements is much greater than the average diameter of NPs (100‐300 nm), most of the collected RS signal (Figure c) originates from the BSA molecules hosted inside the nanocavity (inset in Figure c).…”

Slow Photons for Photocatalysis and Photovoltaics

“…In the early nineties, Yablonovich's work on the synthesis of artificial photonic crystals drew much interest in these new materials. Since then, photonic crystals have been synthesized by simple chemical methods . Among them, inverse‐opal‐type photonic crystals have been extensively used in photocatalysis due to their open structure .…”

[INVITED] New perspectives in photonic crystal fibre sensors

“…More recently, it was demonstrated that a photonic band gap PCF with an optically-trapped particle inside the hollow core can be used as a reconfigurable sensor [59]. Electric field and temperature sensing with high spatial resolution were demonstrated with such a configuration [59]. The aforementioned examples demonstrate the potential of PCFs to devise completely new optical fibre sensors.…”

“…The transmission spectrum of a twisted PCF exhibits also a dip whose position changes with axial strain or temperature [57,58]. More recently, it was demonstrated that a photonic band gap PCF with an optically-trapped particle inside the hollow core can be used as a reconfigurable sensor [59]. Electric field and temperature sensing with high spatial resolution were demonstrated with such a configuration [59].…”